Rights Now

Rachel Hurst, Rights Now!

Rights Now! has appeared to be very quiet for some time so we thought it would be a good idea to let people know what has been happening in the organisation in the last two or three years and what our plans are for the next year.

It is important to remind you that Rights Now! is not an organisation – it is a campaign with a membership of nearly 80 organisations and trades unions and over two thousand individual members. The organisational and trade union membership pay membership fees and that is the only money we receive. All work is voluntary. We also only campaign on the specific issue of civil rights for all disabled people. We leave it up to our member organisations to campaign on other, more focussed issues, such as the Mental Health Bill or services. Our mission statement is to achieve comprehensive and enforceable civil rights legislation for disabled people and to combat any public policy or law that goes against civil rights.

Since New Labour won the election in 1997 there has been a different political climate for Rights Now! – and for all our members. We now have a government who apparently share our demands for full and comprehensive non-discrimination legislation but do not share a proper realisation that the DDA is a very flawed document and needs to be significantly re-written or re-placed. Nor has the government a proper understanding of the rampant disablism that is institutionalised in our society and how the voice of disabled people themselves is ignored. The issue for Rights Now! as a campaign, is how to get these messages across. Soon after the election, we produced a position statement of five points calling for the appointment of a Disability Rights Commission, that the Commission should be composed of 75% representative disabled people, that it should write a new comprehensive and enforceable civil rights bill and report within twelve months and that it should be properly resourced for the task. We clearly outlined what were the important issues to be covered in the new law.

As you know, all we got was the DRC. And the DRC has not been a comfort to Rights Now! or fulfilled our demands. So for the next election (May, 2001) our demands were for new legislation to ensure:

• comprehensive and enforceable civil rights and the implementation of the Disability Rights Task Force recommendations within two years,
• an end to charging for essential community services
• fully accessible transport within five years
• protection for disabled people to the right to life and to receive equal access to health care treatment
• an end to institutional disablism (as with racism or sexism)
• an end to discrimination in genetic science.

Our latest strategy is to focus on the DRC, the DDA, the Human Rights Act and work for a UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. The first action we are planning is to write a 10-minute Rule Bill, as our idea of what a new disability bill should be. This would, of course, cover all the points that we have had special concerns over and we hope, provide a blue print for any new disability legislation.

A 10-minute rule bill does not become law but gives a great opportunity for debate. It is essential that we highlight all these really important issues. And equally important is that disability organisations are involved in the procedure. Many members of BCODP are also members of Rights Now and are getting minutes of meetings directly from us and attending the Rights Now meetings and having a say. But there may be many of you reading Activate who have not heard from us for some time. (We have had considerable administrative problems for the last two years). Please do contact us and tell us what you think should be in a new bill. We welcome all suggestions.

Contact us at: Rights Now!, c/o DAA, 11 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB
Tel: 020 7834 0477 Fax: 020 7821 9539
TTY: 020 7821 9812 e-mail: admin@daa.org.uk

© Copyright British Council of Disabled People 2002