British human rights group believes disabled people should be able to serve in military

From The Telegraph in the UK:

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has told the Ministry of Defence that the current ban is discriminatory and that all three armed forces should allow disabled people to serve.

But defence chiefs and government ministers are opposing any moves to relax the rules, saying recruiting disabled people would impact on morale, operational effectiveness and would create a two-tier military organisation.

The EHRC has written to the MoD to demand that it meet the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Person with Disabilities, which Britain has signed.

The EHRC admits that while disabled people could not be deployed to the front line or in combat roles they could still play an active support role in all three armed services.

However, the MoD wants to be given a full opt out before the Government ratifies the convention.

Kevan Jones, the Veterans Minister, described the EHRC's calls as "misguided" and "smacked of tokenism".

Mr Jones said: "If you have an Army where you do not send soldiers to war then you create a force with two classes of soldiers and for reasons of morale and unit cohesion that could not be allowed to take place.

"To suggest that you have that situation (with the retention of disabled servicemen) is wrong. It is quite right that soldiers who are disabled through their service, such as soldiers injured in Afghanistan, are retained by the service.

"The idea that you could recruit disabled people and then not deploy them on operations wouldn't be good for anyone."

The Veteran's minister denied that the Ministry of Defence was discriminating against disabled people and said that the ban was for reasons of "practicality".

He added: "I am sure the EHRC is well-intentioned but I am not sure they understand how the armed forces work and therefore the armed forces should be exempted from this legislation.

"The idea that you could have a regiment with two classes of soldiers – one able bodied and one disabled – would be entirely unworkable.

"I don't think that is the situation where disabled soldiers have been retained by the Army or Royal Marines because they have done the war fighting bit.

"I don't know if this is about someone wanting to tick a box but I have never been into tokenism and there are many ways disabled people can serve their country in a civilian capacity."

In recent years the military has allowed seriously injured and disabled soldiers to continue with their military careers even though there is no prospect of them returning to active service.

While soldiers who were severely injured in the Northern Ireland conflict and the Falklands War were allowed to continue serving the numbers who chose to do so were relatively small.

But since 2003, the numbers of troops with long-term life-changing injuries has grown dramatically and many are choosing to continue with their military careers.

Mark Ormrod, a Royal Marine, who lost both legs and an arm in a blast on Christmas Eve in Helmand in 2007 while serving on operations has been allowed to return to service following a remarkable recovery.

While it is unlikely that the 25-year-old Commando will ever deploy on operations he has begun a new career as a clerk with 42 Commando in Plymouth.

Other soldiers who have lost legs have also returned to serve with the Parachute Regiment and have deployed to Afghanistan although there service did not take them to the front line.

Disabled campaigners argue that if wounded servicemen like Mne Ormrod can be retained in the forces then disabled recruits should be allowed to join.

A spokesman from the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: "The armed forces are the only employers to remain exempt from the Disability Discrimination Act. The Equality and Human Rights Commission believes the current 'blanket ban' should be lifted.

"We recognize the vital need to maintain operational effectiveness but this change doesn't affect frontline roles.

"We believe that disabled staff in desk jobs – including soldiers who have been injured in conflict– should be entitled to the same protection from discrimination as any other disabled person."

A Spokesman from the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: "The armed forces are the only employers to remain exempt from the Disability Discrimination Act. The Equality and Human Rights Commission believes the current 'blanket ban' should be lifted.

"We recognize the vital need to maintain operational effectiveness but this change doesn't affect frontline roles.

"We believe that disabled staff in desk jobs – including soldiers who have been injured in conflict– should be entitled to the same protection from discrimination as any other disabled person."