Convention of Rights 29: Right to an adequate standard of living

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) forms the foundation of disability rights laws in Uganda and is the model for the Persons With Disabilities Act (PWDA) 2006. The CRPD underlines and recognizes that persons with disabilities (PWDs) are entitled to all the human rights enunciated in the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you are a PWD the rights in the CRPD are your rights, if you do not have a disability it is your duty to uphold and promote these rights.

Article 28 of the CRPD says 1, PWDs have the right to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their family. That includes food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.

2, PWDs have the right to social protection through the following measures:

a, equal access for PWDs to clean water, and appropriate devices and other assistance for disability needs.

b, Ensuring access by PWDs more particularly women and girls with disabilities and the elderly with disabilities to social protection and poverty reduction programs.

c, For PWDs living in poverty access to State assistance with disability related expenses, including training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care.

d, PWDs should have access to public housing.

e, PWDs should have equal access to retirement benefits and programs.

The right to an adequate standard of living is a fundamental right for all PWDs. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Without this right, other rights cannot be accessed. For instance, a PWD who cannot find work to earn money might not be able to attain an adequate standard of living; or a PWD living independently might need support to achieve an adequate standard of living; or not having an adequate standard of living may require a PWD to live in institutional care to get water, food or shelter (see Human Rights: Yes!).

The 2016 report Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Uganda offers the following examples of how this right is not met. In these cases discrimination on the basis of age leads to missing out on the right to an adequate standard of living:

141. The Uganda Constitution’ Objectives and State Principles on standards of living and social protection are focused mainly on the aged. E.G., Objective VII addresses the protection of the aged where the State undertakes to make reasonable provision for their welfare and maintenance. Objective XIV mentions pension and retirement benefits which apply to the aged whilst there is no provision for PWDs. The Government of Uganda has yet to develop any form of social assistance for PWDs. PWDs are further excluded from the law on housing which aims to provide housing accommodation for citizens of Uganda at an economical cost. Such assistance would greatly improve the standard of living and social protection of PWDs.

142. Although programmes exist to improve the standard of living in the community, the select criteria used generally discriminate against PWDs. One such criterion is for beneficiaries to work in groups. Due to the perception that PWDs are incapable of working, few groups can recruit them.

Members of Parliament (MP's) are actively engaged in establishing universal social welfare as this 2017 report MPs in Uganda make case for universal social protection programme shows:

Parliaments have a key role in advancing the social protection agenda and encouraging the progressive realization of the rights to social security and an adequate standard of living.

An example of the active engagement of legislative bodies in setting the social protection agenda was a recent event organized by the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Social Protection, held in Kampala on January 16th 2017. The session focused on making the economic case for social protection and building an inclusive national social security system. In Uganda, in recent years, the Expanding Social Protection Programme (ESP) – funded by DFID and Irish Aid – has been engaging with Parliament to build support for Uganda’s pilot Senior Citizen’s Grant (SCG), a universal social pension for those over-65 years.

If you are a PWD you are entitled to an adequate standard of living.

All you need to Know: Expanding Social Protection Programme Phase I (ESP1).
The purpose of the ESP1 Programme was to embed social protection into Uganda’s national planning and budgeting processes. Critical to this embedment is funding by the Government of Uganda to the extension and and roll out of the Senior Citizens Grants beyond the initial 15 districts. The objectives of the pilot were twofold: First, to provide lessons from which the government could take decisions to build and expand social protection in the country. The second was to build systems to support the development of the social protection framework for Uganda.

This is written in Article 28 of the CRPD in the following way:

Article 28

Adequate standard of living and social protection

1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability.

2. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social protection and to the enjoyment of that right without discrimination on the basis of disability, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right, including measures:

(a) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services, and to ensure access to appropriate and affordable services, devices and other assistance for disability-related needs;

(b) To ensure access by persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to social protection programmes and poverty reduction programmes;

(c) To ensure access by persons with disabilities and their families living in situations of poverty to assistance from the State with disability related expenses, including adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care;

(d) To ensure access by persons with disabilities to public housing programmes;

(e) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to retirement benefits and programmes.