Human Rights Commission
Media Release
15 August 2007

Disabled people must shape National Standards of Care

Disabled people must be recognised as active participants in developing and controlling services they use, says Commissioner Robyn Hunt.

She was speaking before the Social Service Committee’s Inquiry into the quality and care of services provision for disabled people in Auckland today.

The Commission’s submission stated that people are vulnerable to human rights abuses when they are dependent on the care of others and viewed merely as consumers, patients and recipients of charitable services.

“In 2004 the Commission’s human rights action plan based on extensive consultation found that in their daily lives disabled people remain among the most disadvantaged of our citizens,” she said.

The Commission’s status report Human Rights in New Zealand Today: Nga tika Tangata o te Motu quotes a disability advisory group, “What is of fundamental and overriding concern, however is that disabled people struggle to be included in the right to citizenship without exceptions.”

Chief Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan, also speaking before the committee, called for the Inquiry to set human rights principles as the foundation on which to build proposed National Standards of Care. She said human rights protections must be fully incorporated into policy so they are a reality in people’s lives.

She said the wellbeing of disabled people was intertwined with the situation of disability service workers. There would be little progress unless the inquiry considered ways to improve training, career development and pay for home care and personal support staff. Though invaluable, they were among the lowest paid workers in the country. The Human Rights Commission recommended that minimum qualifications, pre-service or within a specified time on the job, incorporate knowledge of human rights standards and stipulate a requirement to successfully undertake a module on disability awareness and competency.

“International human rights covenants and conventions, New Zealand’s human rights law and the NZ Disability Strategy give a strong basis for recognition of the right to dignity, equality and security for every disabled person,” she concluded.

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