Equality and Human Rights Commission

When the UK Government ratified the Convention, it made reservations against a number of Articles and one interpretative declaration. A reservation is a statement that says that the government will not (yet) take steps on a certain issue. An interpretative declaration sets out the government's understanding of what a particular Article means and agrees to ratify it on condition that it is interpreted in this way.

The reservations and the interpretative declaration are discussed in Part 2, under the right to make your own decisions (Article 12), liberty of movement and nationality (Article 18), right to education (Article 24), and right to work (Article 27).

The Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission believe the reservations and declaration made by the UK Government are either unnecessary or invalid and should be withdrawn.