Confident, Connected, Contributing

Glasgow Disability Alliance’s Triple Whammy report showed that ‘For disabled women, the inequality, exclusion and discrimination already faced as a disabled person, and as a woman, have been triple-charged by the unequal impacts of Covid-19’.

The Scottish Women’s Budget Group have worked with members of Glasgow Disability Alliance to use gender budgeting tools to look at how these structural inequalities impact disabled women, how the current cost of living crisis is exacerbating theses inequalities and how the actions taken to address the crisis are impacting.

Between May and July 2023 SWBG & GDA carried out a survey with GDA members to identify how they were being impacted by rising costs. In total, 103 disabled women responded to the survey.

The findings show that disabled women continue to feel the strain of the situation created by the pandemic while simultaneously experiencing the unequal impact of the cost-of-living crisis

We strongly support the incorporation of all of our international human
rights treaties, in particular the UNCRPD, into Scots Law. Building a
framework of strong rights, duties and accountability, with adequate and
meaningful access to justice, is a vital step to stop the decimation of
disabled people’s human rights that has been called a “human
catastrophe” by the UN itself.

We welcome the long-awaited consultation on the Bill as a step towards
human rights law in Scotland and following through on the commitment
to enshrine UNCRPD into Scots Law, made in the last parliamentary
session.

As outlined in our response, while we welcome many of the proposals within the
bill, we have concerns about the limits within the current proposals to
protect disabled people’s human rights. In particular, the model of
incorporation needs to place a stronger duty to comply on as many
rights of possible within the UNCRPD.

Disabled People’s Organisations in Scotland wrote to the First Minister on the 4th September 2023, to urge him to use the new parliamentary session to reset his relationship with disabled people and our organisations.

More importantly, we asked the First Minister in Scotland to prioritise disabled people in Scotland by asserting his leadership to drive forward an Immediate Priorities Plan to tackle the poverty and inequalities which are blighting lives, eroding rights and leading to poorer life outcomes for disabled people, including dying in higher numbers.

The letter was written by GDA and supported by Inclusion Scotland, Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living, Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living, Self-Directed Support Scotland, People First Scotland and Disability Equality Scotland.

The First Minister must use the new programme for government as an opportunity to show his commitment to prioritising disabled people in his policies and tackling the rife poverty and inequalities we are facing.