Disabled People: Their Human Rights and Your Business
An Employers' Forum on Disability Briefing for CSR Practitioners
In association with AccountAbility with the support of Cable & Wireless
Disabled people, like all people, have human rights, which every business needs to understand.
The focus of the human rights agenda for people with disabilities is not so much to establish that disabled people have human rights - naturally they do - but to enable them to access and take advantage of those rights. Human rights instruments around the world and at regional and national level all make it clear that disability is a human rights issue. However, this is an often overlooked dimension of human rights. Too often disabled people are excluded from mainstream society and are denied equality because of deep rooted attitudinal, as well as, physical barriers.
Business can play an important role both in protecting the human rights of their disabled employees as well as promoting human rights across their supply chains, for their customers and in the community.
Human Rights and Vulnerable Groups
Despite the fact that the human rights of disabled people are well established in law, in practice they are still more likely to be violated that those of other people. Many disabled people are vulnerable and are particularly at risk. The UK's Disability Awareness in Action database has recorded 2,046,627 cases of human rights abuse of disabled people worldwide over the last ten years. (1)
The UN resolution on the protection of persons with Mental Illness and the improvement of Mental Health Care, Principle (1) prohibits discrimination on the grounds of mental illness.
Persons suffering from mental impairments are particularly vulnerable to discrimination. Not only does this impact negatively on their ability to access appropriate treatment and care but the stigma associated with mental illness means that they experience discrimination in many other aspects of their lives, affecting their right, for example, to employment, adequate housing, education.
Employment
Many companies such as BT adopt policies with regard to human rights to ensure that their employees are treated with integrity and dignity.
“We use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ensure our policies enhance human dignity. But new challenges and opportunities regularly arise and we don't rely on policy alone to make sure we handle them well.”
BT Better World website. (2)
- Disability Awareness in Action, www.daa.org.uk
- http://www.btplc.com/Betterworld/Humanrights/Humanrights.htm