Irish Human Rights Commission

NationalUniversity of IrelandGalway & TrinityCollegeDublin

Seminar on Saturday 16th April 2005

The draft UN Treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities:

Towards an Effective Monitoring Mechanism

Kevin McLaughlin, Commissioner, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

In 1994 I was lucky enough to go to America for a month, as part of an All – Ireland group, on a study tour to look at the impact the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 was having.

That piece of legislation had been widely welcomed by the Disability Movement as enshrining the rights of disabled people, and was viewed as a Model of Good Practice.

During the study tour I met a number of disabled people in the Disability Movement in America who had played an active role in the drafting of the Act. I believe their involvement was crucial to that Act being successful.

Disabled people in the United Kingdom had been campaigning to have similar legislation passed and in 1995 the Disability Discrimination Act was passed. This Act was based largely on the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990, but disabled people were not involved in the drafting of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Instead the Act was written based on the Medical Model of Disability and totally ignored the Social Model of Disability that was being promoted by the Disability Movement.

The aim of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was to end discrimination and give disabled people particular rights in the areas of:

Employment

Access to Goods, Facilities and Services

Education

Public Transport

The Sale or Renting of Land or Property

The Employment Provisionspart of the Act came into force in 1996, along with the First Access Provisions. In 1999 Reasonable Adjustment Access Provisions were introduced and last October Physical Access Provisions were introduced.

That meant that providers of Good, Facilities and Services had to avoid, alter and remove all physical barriers. Yet this provision has been largely ignored.

Disabled people still face problems getting into buildings and getting access to services such as Doctors and Dentists.

When it comes to transport, Disabled people can get access to Bus Stations, Railway Stations, Ferry Terminals and Airports. Yet they cannot get access to the transport.

The Government guidelines suggest that buses need to be accessible by the year 2017, trains by the year 2025 and planes by the year 2050.

In the United Kingdom the Government introduced the Special Education Needs & Disability Act 2001 which gives disabled children the right to attend mainstream education. But that piece of legislation is still not applicable in Northern Ireland, although it is due to be introduced as the Special Education Needs & Disability Order.

There are 52 Special Needs Schools in Northern Ireland and the disabled children who attend these are permitted to do 4 GCSE’s. Most employers in Northern Ireland put a requirement of 5 GCSE’s to even get an interview.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 also talked about ending discrimination when it came to the sale or renting of land or property. Many disabled people live in Council/ Northern Ireland Housing Executive houses, which have been adapted to meet their needs.

As a sitting tenant there is a right to buy your house. That right does not apply to disabled people living in Council houses. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive say there is a shortage of adapted housing and a waiting list for such property.

I am pleased to say that there is a case pending to try and challenge this discrimination.

You are probably wondering why I am flagging up all these negative sides of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995?

Firstly, because I believe that having disabled people involved in the process of drafting legislation leads to a better piece of legislation. Which is why I was pleased that the working group on drafting the United Nations Convention on Disability included disabled people.

I think why I am also raising these points is that when I attended the Ad Hoc Committee meeting in New York 2 years ago, the Government representatives from the United Kingdomwere among those who felt there was no need for a Convention on the Rights of Disabled People.

The reason they felt this was that the United Kingdom had existing anti-discrimination legislation and there was no need to add to that.

In contrast the main push to set-up a Convention came from Countries where there was no Disability Legislation in place.

Clearly the flaws I have already mentioned in relation to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, demonstrates that the rights of disabled people are not as well enshrined in law as the United Kingdom Government had thought.

I believed 2 years ago, and still do, of the need to establish a United Nations Convention, and also to create a Monitoring System that involves Disabled People and I am looking forward to this afternoon’s session where this will be debated some more.

Thank You.