Pringle welcomes ratification of UNCRPD Optional Protocol
- Updated: 7th November 2024
Independent TD for Donegal Thomas Pringle has welcomed the Government’s overdue ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UNCRPD, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, saying the government must now prioritise inclusion.
Deputy Pringle said: “I have been pressing the government to ratify the Optional Protocol and welcome the announcement that, finally, it will come into effect in Ireland on Nov. 30th.
“This should have happened long before now. I raised this issue in the Dáil eight times and submitted seven parliamentary questions in the current Dáil alone. Disability groups and human rights organisations have long called for ratification.
“The Optional Protocol establishes a complaints mechanism for the UNCRPD for individuals or groups who believe their rights under the Convention have been violated. It gives people with disabilities a way to make a complaint to the UN to ensure their rights are vindicated.
“I’ve said before that the fact that the optional protocol has been left unaddressed for so long has illustrated the government’s real lack of care for disabled people and their families. The UNCRPD was adopted by the UN in 2006, yet not ratified by Ireland until 2018.
“However, it is most important to ensure that the rights of people with disabilities are upheld and that the government makes an inclusive and accessible society our priority.
“We must promote a social model of disability through a human rights and equality approach and remove all barriers to disabled people’s full participation in our society. That means a cross-departmental approach that eliminates barriers to housing and education, to services and amenities, to employment, transport and health services.
“That means developing a properly resourced national Personal Assistance Service, as called for by Independent Living Movement Ireland, that would meet disabled people’s needs for self-determined lives by providing the supports they need to live in the community.
“I also join with many DPOs in calling for a permanent cost of disability payment for disabled people. Government continues to fail to recognise the real cost of disability, and means tests for the inadequate disability allowance ignore the reality of disabled people’s lives.
“The ratification of this optional protocol can be an important vehicle for people to use when they believe their rights have been breached.
“We need a government that will focus on ensuring that disabled people’s rights are upheld before they are forced to seek vindication of those rights, and that we have an inclusive society where barriers to participation have been eliminated,” he said.
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