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Statement of Concern – COVID-19: Human rights, disability and ethical decision-making

By convenor |

Media Release

Internationally recognised Australian experts in the areas of human rights, bioethics and disability, have today released a Statement of Concern to emphasise key human rights principles and standards that need to underpin ethical decision-making in the context of disability and the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 should not herald rollback in rights for people with autism: UN chief

By convenor |
United Nations logo

The rights of persons with autism must be taken into account in efforts to address the COVID-19 coronavirus: “a public health crisis unlike any other in our lifetimes”, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday.

António Guterres’s appeal came in his message for World Autism Awareness Day, observed annually on 2 April.

Open Letter: Now is the time to act on pandemic measures for people with disability

By convenor |

Media Release

People with disability, and their organisations, across Australia are calling for urgent action, again, to keep us safe during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 70 national, state and territory disability organisations have come together to urge the National Cabinet to take the urgent action we need to keep people with disability free of the COVID-19 virus.

Australian dad begs to have his son returned after child agencies put him in a home when they mistook his autism for signs of abuse

By bobb |

Tita Smith

An Australian dad is pleading for help after his son was taken by child protection services because his autism was mistaken as a sign of psychological abuse.  

Conrad and Katya den Hertog lost their son Martin, now seven, to Dutch authorities during a night-time raid of their home in Amsterdam in February 2018.  

Increase Disability Support Pension now to deal with COVID-19

By bobb |
a jumble of logos from national disability peak bodies

Media Release

People with disability who receive the Disability Support Pension (DSP) urgently need access to the increased Coronavirus Supplement of $550 per fortnight, consistent with the Jobseeker Payment and other payments recently announced.

People with disability who are in receipt of DSP are experiencing and facing additional, unforeseen costs in this time of crisis, which is causing significant levels of distress and anxiety, and only serving to further entrench DSP recipients into poverty.

U.K. government faces lawsuit over mistreatment of autistic people

By bobb |

Following a series of scandals in the United Kingdom over people with autism being held against their will and mistreated in hospitals, a watchdog group has issued a legal challenge to the government.

The incidents highlight that the entire system of care for people on the spectrum is in need of an overhaul, the challengers say.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder mother forced to ‘parade’ daughter for disability support application

By bobb |

Indiana Lysaght

Demeaning, degrading and disgusting is how a Kalgoorlie-Boulder mother has described her recent experience with Centrelink.

Despite a lifetime with a diagnosed disability, Jo Russell said she had to parade her daughter “like a monkey” during a disability support application.

Megan Russell was diagnosed with autism and an intellectual disability when she was two years old, which has left her in the full-time care of her mother

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