The United Nations Rights of Persons with Disabilities Committee has agreed to consider a complaint regarding the possible violation of the rights of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee, who died in August 2022 after a UK hospital withdrew his life support against his family’s wishes.
Archie’s mother, Hollie Dance, along with his father, had fought in court for months to ensure that Royal London Hospital would continue their son’s treatments or alow him to be moved to hospice care. The hospital was unwilling to do either.
It has been one year since Dance found Archie unconscious in their home on April 7, 2022, with a ligature around his chin and head, close to his windpipe. It is believed that he had been participating in an online challenge. About three minutes went by before his mother found him, and he had been in a coma until his death in August, diagnosed with catastrophic hypoxic ischaemic brain injury.
However, in July 2022, the UN had issued an injunction asking that the hospital not remove Archie’s life support while his case was being considered. According to The Christian Post, that injunction was issued under Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but the UK Court of Appeal decided that the ruling from the UK High Court trumped the UN’s injunction.
“All we had ever wanted was for Archie to have time. The UN intervention granted that time, but in our hour of need, that was taken away from us,” said Dance. “Nothing can now bring Archie back, but I am determined to continue to pursue justice for him and to hold the UK government properly accountable.”
The family is being represented by Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre. She said they are working to ensure there is justice for Archie. “I am sincerely grateful that the UN is taking this matter seriously and scrutinising the UK’s decision making to ensure full transparency,” she said.
In a letter, Ibrahim Salama, chief of the UN’s Human Rights Treaties Branch, confirmed that the committe would determine whether the withdrawal of Archie’s care was indeed a violation of his rights as a disabled person.
