Making rights a reality: what you can do – United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Tell people and organisations about the Convention. Make sure people understand their rights and obligations. 

You could do this by: 

• talking to people;
• putting information online or in newsletters or newspaper articles;
• speaking about it at meetings;
• highlighting your rights and performing them in plays or films;
• writing a report or letter and discussing it with your local MP; and
• telling local services how the things they do affect people with a disability, or using the Convention with laws like the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

If you feel you have been discriminated against, and a person or organisation is not following the principles of the Convention, there are a number of things you can do:

1. Try to resolve the situation yourself – talk to the organisation or person and try to help them understand your point of view. It is important to decide which right in the Convention you are talking about, say how the organisation is not meeting this right and be clear about how they could change things.
2. Contact your peak body for help or to make a complaint – for Deaf people, this is Deaf Australia.
3. Lodge a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission. The Commission can investigate complaints of discrimination and human rights breaches.
4. Lodge a complaint with the UN Committee. You can make a complaint about any of the rights in the Convention, but only after you have tried every option to solve the problem in Australia.

This video was funded by the Australian Government. © DSS 2014

This video accompanying this text was endorsed by Deaf Australia. Category 1: Auslan signs, Auslan grammar. Deaf Australia Inc website.