Learning Disability England has joined with self advocates and the British Institute of Human Rights to write a letter to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
The letter has been signed by over 200 people and organisations.
It asks them to help get accessible versions of the Human Rights Act Consultation.
And to extend the deadline so people with learning disabilities have an equal chance to take part.
And Pembrokeshire People First sent a Legal Letter, from instructed solicitors, to the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab MP.
It highlighted that they think what the Ministry of Justice has done is unlawful.
And says people with learning disabilities need a proper Easy Read version and the deadline to be extended.
What is this all about?
The government is asking people about what they think about plans to change the Human Rights Act laws in England.
The government want to change the law to a Bill of Rights.
Since December 2021 people have been telling the government what they think.
The consultation is due to close on 8th March 2022.
But there has been a big problem with accessibility.
People and groups have been asking for an easy read version since December.
What about the ‘word only easy read’?
On 24th February the government published a ‘word only easy read version’ of the consultation.
That meant that people who needed an accessible version only had 12 days to take part in the consultation.
Everyone else had 12 weeks because the consultation started in December.
And the ‘word only easy read’ was still hard to understand.
What did Learning Disability England do next?
Learning Disability England wrote to the Ministry of Justice.
We said we do not think this is easy read.
It has no pictures.
It is still too difficult to understand.
We asked the Ministry of Justice to make a proper easy read version.
And to extend the consultation deadline so people with learning disabilities have time to take part as equals.
The Ministry of Justice has not replied yet.
And Learning Disability England joined with self advocates and the British Institute of Human Rights to write to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
We sent a special newsletter to members asking them to sign the Open Letter.
We did that because the Joint Committee can ask questions about the consultation.
And ask the Ministry of Justice to make accessible versions.
And extend the deadline.
You can find out more on the BIHR website here
We will update this post when the Joint Committee on Human Rights or the Ministry of Justice replies.