The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the committee) has published its findings on its recent review of how Australia is meeting its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
The findings cover how Australia is doing with regard to the rights of persons with disabilities, and covers positive developments, areas of concern, as well as listing the committees recommendations for Australia to action.
The Report recognised the positive work that Australia has undertaken. However, the Report also revealed that the committee is deeply concerned about:
- The serious delays to releasing the 3rd Implementation Plan under the National Disability Strategy (NDS) 2010 -2020;
- The lack of engagement and limited funding of Disability Representative Organisations (DRO’s) under the NDS and National Disability Agreement (NDA) to ensure that persons with disability are fully engaged through their representative organisation in policy development, implementation and monitoring of actions relating to the Convention;
- Disability assessments under the NDIS are still relying heavily on the medical model of disability.
- the NDIS not providing equal opportunities for older persons with disabilities:
- The NDIS being inaccessible because it is complicated to access, and a lack of services in remote areas
- The lack of sustainable and well-resourced individual & independent advocacy programs.
Some of the committee’s recommendations for Australia include the following:
- Bringing Australia’s legislation inline with the Convention, and carrying out Disability Rights Impact Assessments on any legislative changes that may impact the rights of persons with disabilities;
- Rolling out the 3rd Implementation Plan for the National Disability Strategy, and ensuring that it is fully resourced, and includes active participation & consultation with diverse organisations of persons with disabilities,and the recommendations made by the Productivity Commission are implemented.
- Reviewing disability assessment criteria for the NDIS to bring the criteria in line with the human rights model of disability
- Making the NDIS easier for people with disability to use and making sure that all information is accessible
- Ensuring that all Australians with disabilities have access to ongoing, sustainable and well-resourced individual and independent advocacy programs, especially outside of the NDIS.
You can read the Outcomes Report in full via the links below:
You can read more about the CRPD Review on the AFDO website.
