CLF provides submissions to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Christian Legal Fellowship (CLF) recently provided written submissions to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been examining how to “build back better” from the COVID-19 pandemic from a disability rights perspective. CLF took the opportunity to comment on the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and Canada’s expanding medical assistance in dying (“MAiD”) regime, including the disproportionate impact that restrictions and policy responses have had on persons with disabilities, the expansion of eligibility of MAiD to include disability-related suffering, and the rise in patients seeking MAiD due to suffering caused by “isolation/loneliness”.
In addition, CLF expressed alarm that the Canadian government has failed to respond meaningfully to the serious concerns raised by a number of UN experts, including the former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, who identified serious shortcomings in Canada’s framework for supporting persons with disabilities. The Canadian government has taken no active, public steps to respond to these concerns; instead, it has exacerbated them by expanding MAiD eligibility to include patients who experience suffering due to their disability, including suffering potentially caused by stigma, discrimination, isolation, loneliness, and lack of support. These actions have been decried by multiple UN experts, who expressed concern that Canada’s expansion of MAiD undermines Canada’s international legal obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
As an NGO in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, CLF is privileged to engage in advocacy on these important issues on the international stage. We will continue to seek further opportunities to do so. Click here to read CLF’s complete submissions.
Further reading:
CLF’s submissions urging Parliament to respond to human rights concerns re Bill C-7 (February 2021)