UNCRPD - Public examination of UK Government sessions to be live streamed
On Monday the 21st of August, the British Deaf Association took their representations of failings by the UK Government against deaf people to the UN Committee on the Rights of People with Disabilities in Geneva.
Over Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th, the committee will review the UK Government and create a list of recommendations based on the evidence provided by the British Deaf Association and other key UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations.
The work of the UNCRPD is vital in bringing the UK Government to account for the way that deaf people are viewed and treated in society, as well as their rights as a cultural and linguistic group. The BDA hope that this week, the UNCRPD will support them in calling for the UK Government to take the example of some of the devolved nations and finally establish a British Sign Language Act.
Excitingly, the session will be available via live stream in BSL, so anyone can find out what is going on, and what people at the highest level are saying about deaf people in the UK.
The UNCRPD sessions will be live streamed at 2pm on Wednesday the 23rd and at 9am on Thursday the 24th of August.
Below you will find two links. The first will open the main CRPD meeting video, the second will open the live BSL interpretation video provided by the United Nations.
From the BDA, Dr Terry Riley OBE (Chair), Damian Barry (Executive Director), and Áine Jackson (Research and Policy Officer) will be attending the event in person, and hope that many of the deaf community will make the most of this exciting opportunity to see the UK Government taken to task by the UN.
LIVE STREAM - UNITED NATIONS
The United Nations have provided BSL Interpretation via WebEx which requires a small amount of setting up before the stream can be viewed. These instructions may differ depending on what browser you use (i.e. Chrome, Internet Explorer etc.) but you should be able to access the stream using the following instructions:
- Click on the green “BSL Interpretation” button above
- You will be asked for your name and email address. Then click “Join”
- You will then need to do one of the following:
- If using Chrome select the “Add Webex to Chrome” add on or;
- Click the “Run a Temporary Application” link at the bottom of the screen. This will start a small download. Once the download completes, open the file (the start of the file name should begin with “unog”) and then the WebEx should start in your browser window.
