New DICARP Report Shows that People with Disabilities are About to be Excluded from the New Plastics Treaty

By Sébastien Jodoin, Emily Payne, and Katherine Lofts

A new report from the Disability Inclusive Climate Action Research Program on Integrating the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the draft Plastics Treaty (click here for the fully accessible word version) demonstrates that governments are completely ignoring persons with disabilities and their human rights in the new international treaty being developed to address plastic pollution. This report indicates that states have failed to refer to persons with disabilities in the draft Plastics Treaty, including in provisions that deal with vulnerable groups, the involvement of stakeholders, the design of alternatives to plastics, and measures to ensure a just transition. This is problematic because persons with disabilities are known to be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of plastic pollution as well as inaccessible efforts to address this problem. As such, the exclusion of people with disabilities from the Plastics Treaty is likely to lead to the development of policies, products, and services that increase the barriers that people with disabilities face on a daily basis. The report concludes by calling on states to live up to their obligations under international human rights law and take concrete steps to ensure that persons with disabilities and their rights are fully and effectively included in collective efforts to combat plastic pollution. The authors highlight that including persons with disabilities and committing to universal design in efforts to address plastic pollution have the potential to lead to the development of policies and products that are accessible to a greater share of the population.