Mr. Jarrod Clyne:

I thank the Chair. The mission of the International Disability Alliance is to promote global implementation of the CRPD. This extends to the promotion of the optional protocol. We therefore encourage all states parties to the CRPD to accede to the optional protocol. Currently, there are 100 states parties to the optional protocol. Ireland is one of only three EU member states not to have ratified it yet. The communications procedure the optional protocol provides is an important form of accountability for potential violations of rights under the CRPD. The application of the CRPD to individual cases is also a way for the CRPD and the work of the CRPD committee to become more tangible and real to individual rights holders. By facilitating access to a remedy, it can have a direct impact on the lives of persons with disabilities who may have had their rights violated. Even if no violation is found, the right to be heard and the right to access justice, including at the international level, will have been respected, and that is of considerable importance. There is considerable practical and symbolic value in being able to have recourse to the CRPD committee after exhausting domestic remedies. The communications procedure helps strengthen the standards of the CRPD through the rigorous process of exchange of detailed written submissions on individual complaints from the affected individual and the state. This is by nature very different to the process of periodic reviews of states parties’ implementation of the CRPD and those concluding observations, which are necessarily more general in nature and more systemic and less about individuals, even if they are ultimately the subject.

The contribution to the committee’s jurisprudence through individual communications can be important. It helps to justify the views expressed in general comments. The ratification by Ireland of the optional protocol will in turn help raise standards for all states parties to the convention. Some examples of topics on which the committee has found important and influential individual communications decisions include inclusive education, health and rehabilitation, employment, the right to vote, and gender discrimination. While we recognise the views of the CRPD committee are not binding or of a legal nature, we hope this parliamentary committee will recognise the important contribution that ratifying the optional protocol can make for the lives of persons with disabilities in Ireland and the positive impact on the progressive development of international human rights standards.

We express our support for other organisations' views on the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. Specifically, we call for the abolition of the functional test of mental capacity to ensure the Act reflects the full standards of the CRPD in Article 12 and the view of the committee in general comment No. 1. This is an example of the positive impact the jurisprudence of the CRPD committee can have on domestic legislation. We urge the committee to take that into account.