Mr. Dualta Roughneen:

I am pleased and grateful to be given the opportunity to speak to the committee as CEO of Christian Blind Mission Ireland. I thank the Chair, committee members and colleagues who are here to discuss an issue close to the mission of CBM Ireland, a disability-focused organisation working in international development. For this reason, Article 32 of the UNCRPD, which focuses on international co-operation, points the signatories to the convention towards the same mission as we have and puts commitments to disability rights beyond the local here in Ireland.

Article 32 directs international co-operation to be inclusive of persons with disabilities but this article should not be read in isolation from the rest of the CRPD. The CRPD provides a substantive articulation that disability rights are human rights but also what these rights entail. International co-operation has to be reflective of the CRPD in its totality in order to give disability the meaningful attention it deserves. This reflection is also necessary as Ireland recommits to the global aims of the sustainable development goals, where the achievements in Ireland far outpace progress across much of the world. It should be of concern to all that while Ireland is achieving 80% of the SDGs on our soil, globally only 15% of the targets are on track.

The role played by the Irish diplomatic team at the UN in brokering the recent political declaration on sustainable development, which aims to re-energise global commitments, is commendable. We congratulated An Tánaiste on Ireland’s work in ensuring that the declaration explicitly stated that “persons with disabilities actively participate in and equally benefit from sustainable development efforts”. However, I know from my 20 years working in development how easy it is to use the right words while people with disabilities remain overlooked, often forgotten. I can only look back at my own work now and realise how little consideration I and some of the organisations I worked for, as well as the wider international community, gave to the needs and specific rights of people with disabilities. I did not know what I did not know. Often, the need to do something or do a lot, and quickly, in humanitarian action means not finding the necessary time to find, understand and respond to the specific needs of persons with disability, which results in them being excluded, even with the best of intentions.

Ireland’s commitments under the SDGs, combined with Article 32, require that our international development commitments be inclusive of persons with disabilities. Yet, despite Ireland’s diplomatic efforts globally, A Better World, our policy for international development, only mentions disabilities three times. In each of those references it is simply as part of a list of different groups to be included. It is important that people with disabilities are mentioned – otherwise they will be certainly overlooked – yet the references are cursory.

People with disabilities comprise 16% of the global population, or approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide, and 80% of those live in the developing world. That is 1 billion people with the same rights as everyone but specific and differentiated needs to be able to achieve those rights. It is 1 billion people who are treated as a single and homogeneous group, among a list of many other groups. People with disabilities are not homogeneous nor can they be a mere appendix. Different disabilities require different supports, as we in Ireland know. People with disabilities will also benefit from sustainable development through economic progress and social improvement, but there will be millions who will miss out while they wait for the rising tide to raise all boats. Some will unfortunately drown while the tide rises, without dedicated and targeted investment in their inclusion in international co-operation.

There are 17 sustainable development goals. These have 169 targets, yet only seven of these specifically address disability inclusion. The SDGs have 231 indicators, yet only ten of these require disability data disaggregation and only two of them have any available data to disaggregate. Considering the pre-existing challenges that people with disabilities face relative to the majority of the population, considering they form a large minority of the population and considering the complexities and differential challenges people with different types of disabilities encounter, they remain almost invisible when looking at progress on achieving the SDGs. In our SDG commitments, we must look beyond the brief articulation of what disability inclusion means under Article 32, and look to the CRPD as a whole.

The 1 billion people with disabilities need more than to be referenced as a homogeneous group, one group among many, not to be forgotten, but require a positive, dedicated strategy for their inclusion in international development.

A deaf person is not the same as a blind person, who is not the same as someone with a psychosocial disability, who is not the same as someone who has a physical disability. Each person needs to access education which is different; to enjoy decent work which is different; and to live in and enjoy sustainable cities which is different. This means moving beyond the minimalist approach taken in A Better World and the essentially minimal commitments to measuring progress under the SDG for people with disabilities to something much more holistic and focused.