Law Reform and Practice Implications of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

This seminar, co-organised by the School of Law and Doughty Street Chambers, will examine the implications of reports made in regard to mental health and capacity law.

This is a free event but registration is required in advance. 

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities issued its ‘concluding observations’ on the UK in August 2017. This followed a review by the Committee on the UK’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Committee made a number of recommendations on mental health and capacity law. Against this, the Law Commission in March this year published its recommendations on how the deprivation of liberty safeguards under the Mental Capacity Act should be reformed.

This seminar, co-organised by the School of Law and Doughty Street Chambers, will examine the implications of these reports, and will be of direct interest to solicitors and advisors working for law firms, Local Authorities and NHS Trusts, as well as students of law, social policy and disability studies, School of Law alumni and friends.

The interactive seminar will be chaired by Oliver Lewis (Barrister, Associate Member of Doughty Street Chambers, and Professor of Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds) and will include the following speakers  and topics:

Aswini Weereratne QC  – Using the CRPD in English courts
Ulele Burnham – Equality and discrimination
Dr Bev Clough – Deprivation of liberty safeguards
Professor Anna Lawson – Independent living
Dr Amanda Keeling – Mental Health Act 

Refreshments and networking will follow the event.