Last year, New Zealand joined 80 other countries in signing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Despite its name, the Convention does not actually create new rights for disabled people; rather, it nails down current understandings of what is necessary to protect and implement existing rights affirmed in e.g the ICCPR and ICESCR. Now, finally, the government has got around to introducing legislation to ratify the Convention.
The bill itself makes a number of technical changes to the Human Rights Act and other legislation, which basically fall into three categories: ensuring a consistent definition of "disability" across legislation; repealing provisions allowing officials to be removed if they are mentally ill and replacing it with a more neutral capability test; and expanding the right to "reasonable accommodation" (meaning special services or facilities such as wheelchair ramps required to allow people to participate and function equally) to apply to currently exempt bodies such as business partnerships and to vocational training and industry bodies. All of which is perfectly reasonable, and reflects our society's belief in a fair go for everyone.
The bill will likely pass its first reading next month, with final ratification happening sometime next year.
