Joint Committee on Disability Matters marks UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities with call on Government to ratify Optional Protocol to UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The theme of this year’s UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Sunday, 3 December is ‘United in action to rescue and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with and by persons with disabilities’.

Ireland has one of the first parliaments in the world to have a parliamentary committee that monitors the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which ensures that the world’s largest minority enjoys the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

Census 2022 recorded that 22 per cent of Ireland’s population reported they had some sort of disability. Since its establishment in 2020, the Joint Committee on Disability Matters has heard from people with disabilities and their Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs).

Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Michael Moynihan said: “The Committee heard how people with disabilities are being left behind because the prevalence of the medical model of disability, segregation and structural inequality, and the lack of progress in transformation to a human rights model of disability.

“Members also heard how people with disabilities are not included in decision making, there is no standard in disability proofing, disability is significantly underreported and there are no rights-based policies developed in areas where people with disabilities rights are severely impacted.

“We were also told that the State reacts to external shocks, for example, the economic crisis of 2008 and Covid-19 Pandemic, people with disabilities continue to be left behind. People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by climate change and natural disasters, health crises, humanitarian situations, conflict, and post-conflict, yet few countries make provisions for the needs of people with disabilities in plans for adapting to the effects of climate breakdown.

“These crises exacerbate the inequality and injustice for people with disabilities who were already experiencing a lack of social protection, access to infrastructure, information, social and financial services, higher levels of discrimination and exclusion, and may be segregated and residing in inaccessible institutions or residential settings. As women and girls experience additional discrimination, they can be impacted more significantly in this regard.”

The Committee Cathaoirleach said that SDGs highlight an ambitious agenda to transform the world to ensure a better and more sustainable future for all, and the Committee welcomes their foundation in realising human rights for all as per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, people with disabilities continue to be left behind.

Deputy Moynihan said: “Considering this and to rescue and achieve the SDG’s for, with and by persons with disabilities, the Committee believes that disability must be effectively mainstreamed in the SDGs by including a goal on disability inclusion in line with the UNCRPD and that a key indicator for this goal includes consultation with representatives of people with disabilities, including DPOs.

“The Committee calls on the Government to urgently ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

The Joint Committee on Disability Matters has 14 Members, nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

• The UNCRPD is a landmark Convention which Ireland ratified in 2018 to ensure that persons with disabilities can achieve the transition from exclusion to equality. Parliaments and parliamentarians have a key role to play in this regard and in promoting and protecting human rights.
• The 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) pledges to leave no one behind, including persons with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups, and has recognised disability as a cross-cutting issue, to be considered in the implementation of all its goals. The 2030 Agenda provides a powerful framework to guide local communities, countries, and the international community toward the achievement of disability-inclusive development.
• Ratification of the Optional Protocol supports effective implementation to of the UNCRPD and considering the linkage between the UNCRPD and SDGs, will also support better implementation of the SDGs.
• Recently the United Nations Development Programme reported that even though the SDGs include persons with disabilities, this does not fully extend into the monitoring. Only seven out of 169 targets specifically address disability inclusion and only 10 of their 231 indicators explicitly require disability data disaggregation.
• The human rights model of disability and the UNCRPD are the framework for enabling people with disabilities rights to be mainstreamed and meaningfully disability inclusion across all sectors in Ireland.