Page 13 - Community Living Magazine 33 - 3

opinion

The trouble with rights in reality

Fundamental human rights have been protected globally for Today, questions around the full
more than 70 years. So why, asks Simon Jarrett, are the rights personhood of people with learning
disabilities persist. Here in the UK, however
of people with learning disabilities proving so problematic? much it is claimed that rights apply to all,
enduring practices such as incarceration in
assessment and treatment centres with
he purpose of rights is to protect usefulness of documents such as the 1948 little or no legal recourse, denial of the
and to empower people – to United Nations’ Universal Declaration of right to family life, education and work,
Tprotect them from harm, such as Human Rights and the 1975 Declaration of inferior levels of health treatment, and
violence or starvation, and to empower the Rights of Disabled Persons. abuse even within community-based
them to live good lives through freedom Unless such rights are enforceable, services demonstrate that universal rights
and opportunity. with an effective method for enforcement, frameworks can be of little value if people
There are therefore rights that confer argues Geuss, they are only an expression are perceived as lacking full personhood.
“freedom from” and those that provide of what we regard as desirable, a good This is exemplified in the name of
“freedom to”. Freedom from rights tend idea that we would like to see happen. the movement campaigning to release
to protect individuals while freedom to Worse, he suggests, such declarations people locked up in “specialist”
rights tend to be enabling, according institutions – #HumanToo.
liberties to people that can carry risks. The often unconsciously held belief that
The fact that these two forms of rights “ While rights are people with learning disabilities are not
can be contradictory – to achieve personal fully human derives in part from our
realisation, a person may sometimes have necessary, they are notion of mental capacity. If we argue that
to shed some of their protective rights to not sufficient to guarantee a person does not fully belong because
employ their right to take risks – is at the inclusion, protection they lack the ability to reason, or read or
heart of the struggle many people with write, or live independently, we are
learning disabilities experience in exercising and equality assigning them to a lower level of
their rights to live the lives they wish to live. ” personhood than the rest of society.
However, as several contributors to this Rather than society adapting to
issue eloquently attest, other factors can be positively harmful, creating an whatever characteristics particular humans
underlie the difficulties experienced by illusion of a world in which rights are might have, we construct a society that
people with learning disabilities respected. For the most powerless and excludes and withholds rights from people
concerning their rights. isolated, the world is no such thing but, for who lack certain “essential” capacities.
For Simon Duffy (page 10), human rights those of us who are more powerful and None of this is to say that rights have no
are not in themselves enough; they connected, the illusion of rights for all is place in the lives of people with learning
require inclusive communities to enable psychologically attractive and comforting. disabilities. Indeed, they are essential in
full and equal citizenship. Sally Warren modern societies where, without them,
and Jo Giles (pages 22-23) talk about the Who counts as a person? the risks of discrimination and abuse are
dissipation of rights in certain cultures and Where rights apply to “all people”, the extremely high.
environments to the point where people question of what constitutes a “person” is However, rights must be enforceable
struggle to retain them. Clare Palmer and paramount. The French Revolution’s 1789 and relate to real lives rather than be
Virginia Bovell (opposite page) attest to Declaration of the Rights of Man did not illusory ideas about people and the world
the difficulties of applying a universal set include women. America’s Declaration of in which they live.
of rights (particularly freedom to rights) to Independence in 1776 declared the Moreover, it is important to remember
people with the most profound disabilities. equality of all “men” but this did not that, while rights are necessary, they are
Political theorist Raymond Geuss (2001) include black slaves. In both cases, women not sufficient to guarantee inclusion,
has questioned the effectiveness and and slaves were not seen as fully human. protection and equality.
To reshape society, there must also be a
Little more than a change in social attitudes that creates a
good idea? The 1948 culture of interdependence rather than
Universal Declaration simple independence. Inclusion is based
of Human Rights held on but extends far beyond a set of rights.
by Eleanor Roosevelt, humanness, their right to belong and the
Its starting point is the individual, their
FDR Presidential Library & Museum Commission adjustments and connections that can be
who chaired the UN
Human Rights
made around them to enable belonging
to exist. n

Reference
Geuss R (2001) History and Illusion in Politics.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

www.cl-initiatives.co.uk Community Living Vol 33 No 3 | Spring 2020 13