Dr. Mary Keogh:

I am privileged to be following my good colleague, Ms Naughton. I extend thanks to the committee for the invitation to speak today on the important topics of persons with disabilities and situations of risk and humanitarian situations. I work as advocacy director with CBM Global Disability Inclusion, an international organisation with a dual mandate for international development and humanitarian action. It is a federation that works alongside people with disabilities in the world’s poorest places to transform lives and build inclusive communities where everyone can enjoy their human rights and achieve their full potential. Our federation members include CBM Ireland, and colleagues are here today. It is an active member of the Dóchas working groups on disability, international development and humanitarian action. At the heart of how we work in CBM Global and CBM Ireland is partnership with the disability movement. We work with and support organisations of people with disabilities in our programmes to ensure we meet the needs of, and are accountable to, the individuals and communities we serve. We are pleased to be here today as an associate member of the European Disability Forum and a member of the International Disability and Development Consortium.

Before covering the topic we are here to discuss today, which is primarily Article 11 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it is important to acknowledge that while humanitarian disasters occur year on year, the past three years in particular have witnessed a period in time where we have seen the lives of persons with disabilities in the most precarious of situations stemming from global pandemic, climate events happening more regularly and conflict and war. Ms Naughton touched on this.

The areas outlined for protection under Article 11 are illustrated by the Covid pandemic, which caused the unnecessary deaths of many persons with disabilities worldwide. They can also be seen in the extreme weather events Ms Naughton spoke about, such as the floods in Germany in 2021, the heat dome in Canada and ongoing food security crisis in countries such as Madagascar, where the impact of climate change has impacted negatively on millions of people, including persons with disabilities. They are also illustrated in the dire situation of persons with disabilities currently living in Ukraine and the urgency of an inclusive humanitarian response, including safe evacuations and an inclusive response to the refugees arriving in our countries. These are just a few current examples. We also know that persons with disabilities are impacted daily by conflict, crisis and climate in other parts of the world, such as Syria and Yemen. These are ongoing crises. The urgency for the full implementation of Article 11 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, will always be with us, as emergency and disaster situations continue to unfold at a rapid pace. As Ms Naughton said, this is mainly without warning.

For today’s intervention, I would like to look a bit more closely at the role of the various actors that can be involved in implementing Article 11, which is focused on risk and humanitarian situations for persons with disabilities. The original drafters of the CRPD asserted that the main responsibility for Article 11's implementation lies with the governments that ratify it. This is correct, as it is with all international laws. They also foresaw an important role for organisations of persons with disabilities and wider civil society to support a inclusive humanitarian response. With this in mind, while focusing on the role of the Irish Government, I will also highlight the importance of organisations of persons with disabilities and their critical role in supporting humanitarian responses and the role mainstream organisations can play.

The Irish Government has a dual role in the implementation of Article 11. It must consider the safety of persons with disabilities in Ireland during times of risk, disaster and conflict. Ms Naughton spoke about constant flooding and situations that arise in Ireland and really thinking about how they impact on ensuring the inclusion of persons with disabilities. It is natural for us when thinking of conflict and disaster to think of it happening somewhere else but we know these situations happen in Ireland. The pandemic has highlighted this. It is interesting to see how this was detailed in Ireland’s first report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was published in November 2021. Under its reporting of Article 11, it details the domestic actors involved in emergency response planning and the role of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in ensuring accessible communications.

One of the key barriers that many organisations of persons with disabilities faced worldwide during the pandemic was getting access to basic information that was being provided within media channels and various networks. The report also outlines in broad terms the Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Obviously, it was written during the pandemic so does not offer a reflection on it. We are still going through it. However, it considers the effectiveness of the response and how the Government did that in partnership with organisations of persons with disabilities.

In addition to Ireland’s domestic responsibilities under the convention, it is also responsible for international co-operation and development aid and making sure that, under Article 32, the funding that goes from the Government into overseas and humanitarian aid takes disability inclusion into account. Broadly speaking, this sets up an important role for the Government to ensure the funding channelled through international or development co-operation modalities for the purposes of humanitarian response is inclusive of persons with disabilities. The Dóchas working group on disability and international development has for many years been focused on influencing in this respect.

A recommendation from an Irish perspective is that the committee may wish to consider the organisation of learning and exchange between domestic and international stakeholders on responding to situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies. This could be an exchange between governmental and non-governmental organisations based in Ireland, and with colleagues such as Ms Naughton of the European Disability Forum as well as the International Disability Alliance, to consider how to exchange with the Irish disability movement examples of good practice in disaster risk reduction planning and humanitarian response.

I refer to the role of organisations of persons with disabilities in terms of what was foreseen in the context of the CRPD. Momentum for organisations of persons with disabilities having a role in humanitarian response has been growing in recent years. Typically, in times of risk, disaster or conflict, persons with disabilities can be viewed as passive recipients of assistance - when they can actually get access to it, that is. The view of persons with disabilities as powerless in these situations is widely held and perpetuated by the media and imagery we see daily. It is not a true picture, however. In many situations, persons with disabilities and their representative organisations such as the EDF are active contributors to response in times of emergencies and risk. Examples of this can be found within the field of disaster risk reduction. I have provided in my written submission a hyperlink to a video showing how persons with disabilities have become involved in disaster risk reduction in Bangladesh. A similar situation pertains in respect of climate action, which is obviously an ongoing emergency and will continue to be such. Persons with disabilities and their representative organisations are engaging with the impact of climate change in their communities. For example, a CBM Global partner organisation in Madagascar that represents persons with disabilities is currently mapping out where persons with disabilities are and the challenges they face in accessing humanitarian and food security assistance in Madagascar.

As we are sharing the panel with our colleagues from the European Disability Forum, we wish to highlight the work of EDF and its members, including its Irish members, in times of risk and crisis. In particular, it is worthwhile examining the toolkit it has developed on the inclusion of refugees with disabilities. This is pertinent at the moment as refugees, many of whom may be persons with disabilities, are arriving into Ireland. All of these examples are what the CRPD drafters had in mind when they were thinking of organisations of persons with disabilities leading and being active contributors in times and situations of risk.

The final example I will highlight, which is more at a global level, relates to the disability reference group. It includes a work stream on building capacity of organisations of persons with disabilities to be part of the humanitarian sector, including leading the influence for change that is needed. There is very much a partnership at the moment between the humanitarian sector and the disability movement in respect of how to become better at this from an inclusive perspective. Another recommendation is to consider an exchange between Irish organisations of persons with disabilities and Irish emergency responders to share and chart a path forward for inclusive response.

It is critical for mainstream organisations and organisations of persons with disabilities to work together. International non-governmental organisations, national governmental organisations and organisations of persons with disabilities working together have an important role to play. We are slowly beginning to see a realisation that, in times of risk and emergencies, there needs to be a collective approach so that more people who are impacted by conflict, climate and crisis can be reached. There are recent practical examples of this. The inter-agency guidelines on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian assistance were launched last year. These are the first humanitarian guidelines to be developed with and by persons with disabilities and their representative organisations, along with traditional aid agencies. The launch in Ireland last year marked the beginning of a new phase of Irish action to promote uptake and implementation of the guidelines. A commitment coming from this was a stronger focus on disability across all programming, along with funding for partners working in humanitarian assistance.

The VIVID-T consortium, a funded project by EU volunteers, focused on improving inclusion in volunteer management and humanitarian action. CBM Ireland led the project consortium and worked closely with CBM Global, the Abilis Foundation, the European Disability Forum and ASPEm, as well as colleagues here in Ireland such as Tearfund Ireland and Viatores Christi. Through close collaboration, the project is examining building a community of practice in respect of inclusion in the context of situations of risk and humanitarian situations. These examples of working together highlight how, in future, working in consortiums and collectively bringing different levels of expertise is critical to how we can make progress on ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities under Article 11 are implemented.