Rights Now and BCODP
Is there a future?

Andy Rickell, Chief Executive, BCODP

Can I make it very clear that I was never personally involved in the Rights Now issue until I joined BCODP in August, so I am writing this article based on information which mainly comes from other people. I hope this article fairly reflects history.

I also want to make it very clear that Conference has twice voted to withdraw from Rights Now, essentially over the “repeal” issue. National Council is fully aware of this fact, and has been putting effort in to identify the best strategic way forward for BCODP in the light of Conference’s wishes.

It was me who officially communicated the result of this year’s Conference’s vote to Rachel Hurst, who is currently Rights Now’s Chair. She was very keen to keep BCODP on board, as she believes it was BCODP and its member groups who led the whole Civil Rights Bill campaign in the mid-nineties, and without BCODP’s drive Rights Now has a poor future.

I communicated this to the Executive Committee, and it was agreed to have a meeting to see if there was any future for BCODP having a relationship with Rights Now, or whether a recommendation should go to National Council to withdraw. That meeting involved Rachel Hurst, Jon Luxton, Lorraine Gradwell and myself and it would be reasonable to say there was a full and frank discussion.

What did emerge was that there were some areas that should be explored before BCODP makes a final decision on withdrawal, which would either happen at August’s National Council or at the Conference in October.

The history of Rights Now goes back about 15 years, though it was not called Rights Now at the start. It is a campaigning grouping, not an organisation, and its one goal was to get a law giving disabled people full and enforceable civil rights through parliament. Many organisations were on board, including BCODP and a number of member groups, a number of trade unions, and most of the “Big 7” charities. Apparently RADAR and SCOPE were the only 2 charities against the campaign at the start, but they joined when they realised they were in a minority.

The campaign reached a peak with Roger Berry’s Civil Rights Bill and a mass lobby by disabled people at Westminster. The Conservative government realised they had no choice but to do something and offered the second-rate Disability Discrimination Bill. There was a debate within Rights Now as to whether to accept this as the best on offer or to continue to pressurise to get proper Civil Rights legislation. It was at this point that the “Big 7” pulled the rug from under the Movement by agreeing to work with the Government on the DDA, rather than reject it and call for its “repeal”, and that is still their current policy. It is believed the “Big 7” had a number of reasons for this, including possibly economic ones – there was money in work associated with the DDA.

In theory the “Big 7” are still involved in Rights Now, though in reality the only attendees from them at Rights Now meetings are junior staff who are sympathetic to the original goal of Rights Now. In theory the policy of Rights Now is “reform of the DDA” rather than “repeal”. However Rachel explained that Rights Now is working on a new Civil Rights Bill which should get in as a 10-minute rule bill in the summer term in the Commons, which effectively means that Rights Now is seeking the repeal of the DDA. Rights Now wants BCODP’s input to the draft bill so that we have a new campaign to fight. If BCODP gets involved in Rights Now again, we should be able to resurrect the “repeal” policy and fight again for civil rights laws.

In view of this a recommendation is going to February’s National Council to use the next few months before a final decision is taken on BCODP’s involvement in Rights Now to see what we can get out of staying in Rights Now. The goal of BCODP delegates at Rights Now meetings will be to progress the Civil Rights Bill. After Easter all BCODP groups will be consulted by mail about BCODP’s involvement with Rights Now, making sure everyone is fully informed of the issues. The results of that consultation, together with the practical results from BCODP’s involvement in Rights Now over the next few months will be used to decide what course of action should finally be taken on the Rights Now issue.

As I said at the start of this article I hope I have been fair in what I have said. This is a difficult issue, and the National Council is keen to make sure it makes the right decision for the sake of the Movement in our fight for comprehensive civil rights legislation.

© Copyright British Council of Disabled People 2002