Ms Sinéad Gibney:

I thank the Chair and the members of the committee for the invitation to appear today alongside my colleague, Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh, who chairs our disability advisory committee. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is Ireland’s independent national human rights institution and national equality body. The commission is also the independent monitoring mechanism designate for Ireland under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. We are supported in that work by a disability advisory committee, chaired by Dr. McDonagh and composed of a diverse group of people with lived experience of disability.

From the outset, I want to make clear why it is critical that the State, and the committee members, as legislators, consider disability matters through the lens of human rights and equality, and why it is critical to see disability as universal, in terms of rights that belong to all of us, rather than disability as the exception to be managed. Put simply, the rights afforded by our Constitution and by the laws made in this House are only universal if every person is able to realise them. In our engagement with the committee today, we will largely focus on gaps in legislation, policy or programmes to address the UNCRPD, and how Ireland can best implement this ground-breaking international convention. Committee members will be aware that the commission has made a written submission on the committee's proposed terms of reference and work programme. My comments here will reflect at some points the recommendations in that submission.

A key task for this committee will be monitoring Ireland’s implementation of the UNCRPD. As such, the work of the committee should be guided by the principles which underpin the UNCRPD. One of the most significant of these principles is the direct participation of people with disabilities. Until more people with disabilities are represented in public life, this needs to be core to how this committee, and the Oireachtas, undertakes its work. This participation must also account for the diversity of persons with disabilities, in particular to ensure that the voices of those with intersectional experience of disability, including women, children, older people, Travellers and Roma, LGBT, black and ethnic minority people, are invited, heard and understood.

As the commission previously set out in its evidence to the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, the pandemic has served to highlight in sharp relief existing weaknesses in the legislative architecture which should underpin the rights of people with disabilities. These gaps are multiple and large, and include the non-commencement and delayed reform of enacted legislation, for example, the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 and the Mental Health Act 2001. These delays are incredibly frustrating for people with disabilities, who have fought hard for this legislative change but who continue to experience daily barriers to the realisation of their basic rights in this prolonged phase of inaction. Other outstanding legislation, if enacted, would see the State better equipped to protect the rights of people with disabilities in the future, for example, the inspection of places of detention Bill, which would ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, OPCAT, and establish the national preventative mechanism, and the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which would formally establish the commission as the independent monitoring mechanism for the UNCRPD. In addition, considerable preparation is required for comprehensive implementation of the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 when it comes into force at the end of 2020. Further significant legislation, such as the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 and the Disability Act 2005, predate the UNCRPD. A review of this legislation is required to consider what reform is needed in order to bring it up to date and into alignment with the UNCRPD.

Allied to this is the need to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the State’s newly-established consultation and participation network and other participation mechanisms. As previously mentioned, in the absence of people with disabilities being adequately represented in national and local government, the establishment of a permanent participation mechanism that effectively realises the State’s obligations under Article 4(3) of the UNCRPD on an ongoing basis is critical.

The pandemic has raised the threat for many people with disabilities of being reinstitutionalised in their own homes. The rights-based approach enshrined in the UNCRPD is the antithesis of the old medical or charitable models of disability. Now, more than ever, it is important to maintain that focus and not to drift backwards. In this context, I want to raise the commission’s concerns regarding the diminished access to many services for people with disabilities since the onset of the pandemic. On my point about rights being universal, this exceptional moment we find ourselves in cannot mean that the rights of people with disabilities to participate in society, and to simply live their lives, are postponed indefinitely.

I described the UN convention as groundbreaking and it really is. I wish the committee every success in its work towards the full and unqualified implementation of the UN convention, including the optional protocol. We, as the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, stand ready to assist in any way we can. To make Ireland a disability-friendly country, this is not the only work that is needed. Those among us who have disabilities experience daily stigma and discrimination, often benign but no less harmful. These attitudinal issues make it impossible to enjoy full participation in the economic, social, political and cultural life to which all Irish citizens should have access. The UN convention is a huge step on this journey towards an Ireland where all people, with or without a disability, can flourish equally.