Disability

• Raising awareness
• Strengthening skills
• Reviewing laws
• Working with international and regional human rights groups and other national institutions

• Considering individual and group complaints when rights are not upheld
• Conducting inquiries
• Taking part in judicial proceedings (court cases)
• Issuing reports on the complaints received

• Developing and maintaining a system to check how laws and policies affect people
• Having benchmarks and indicators
• Maintaining information on how the Convention is being implemented

IHREC prepares Independent Reports of State to show how the State is working to meet international monitoring. These reports are expected to provide a strong and reliable starting point for external evaluations.

Exploitation, violence and abuse against disabled people is illegal.

Article 16 of the UNCRPD states that governments must protect disabled people from exploitation, violence and abuse, whether it happens inside or outside the home.

The State must take steps to prevent abuse, including making sure that all services for disabled people are independently monitored. Disabled victims and survivors of exploitation, violence and abuse should have specialist services available to help them. The State should investigate abuse and prosecute abusers.

IHREC works on behalf of disabled people facing abuse. We want to improve standards of prevention, support and justice. We call for greater understanding and more effective response from the Government to all forms of abuse. Our specific concerns include:

• Widespread abuse of disabled people in residential institutions
• Inadequate investigations of abuse
• Weak penalties for abusers
• Domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) against disabled women, including abuse by partners, caregivers and family members, and in residential settings

Preventing abuse

IHREC recommends:

• Awareness-raising campaigns to highlight the types of violence and abuse that affect disabled people. Recent DSGBV awareness campaigns have failed to get their message across.
• Training professionals in health, education, housing and social care to look out for cases of exploitation, violence and abuse, and to take action.

Providing support services

We believe disabled victims and survivors need:

• High-quality specialist support services that meet their diverse needs
• Refuge spaces and safe homes that are built or adapted for all users, in line with universal design principles
• More investment in specialist therapeutic services for victims and survivors of abuse, as well as in general mental health services
• Services that cover short-term, medium-term and long-term needs, including:
• Counselling
• Psychosocial support (involving family or community members)
• Trauma care after physical or psychological injury

Criminal justice measures

IHREC calls on the Government to:

• Extend the criminal offence of coercive control to cover the controlling behaviour that disabled women may experience from carers, relatives and friends
• Make forced sterilisation a criminal offence in Ireland (this form of abuse affects disabled women more than other groups)
• Make Irish Sign Language interpretation services and intermediary support widely available in criminal or family law cases that concern abuse

Protecting disabled people in residential institutions

Many disabled people have to live in residential institutions due to lack of resources to help them live independently. In these centres, they may be at risk of abuse. We believe residents must be better protected against exploitation, violence and abuse in the following ways.

Case reviews

We have raised grave concerns about institutional abuses of disabled people. Although review mechanisms have been established to examine some major concerns of abuse, reviews are treated as internal learning events. They do not include recommendations for that abusers are legally held to account for their actions

Response to case reviews

We call for a stronger response to case reviews. For example, we believe the authorities should:

• Publish case reports (with information such as victims’ names removed where necessary)
• Make clear who is accountable for behaviour in a residential centre
• Improve communication between agencies

Investigating residential centres

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) investigates residential centres. However, these inspections focus on monitoring facilities and do not have  the power to investigate individual cases and complaints. There are long-standing calls for the Government to introduce adult safeguarding legislation. This would ensure complaints of abuse and neglect can be investigated, both in residential centres and in the community. The legislation must be based on the UNRPCD, and it must be developed in consultation with the groups it would affect.

Disabled people have a right to equal access to employment.

Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) sets out this right. It means that the State must promote opportunities for disabled people to gain employment in both the public and private sectors. Disabled people are entitled to fair treatment at work, including decent pay, safe working conditions and protection from harassment.

The employment gap

The disability employment gap in Ireland is among the largest in the EU. This means the employment rate – the proportion of people with a job – is lower for people with a disability than for those without. It is lower in Ireland than elsewhere in Europe. Fewer disabled women work full time in Ireland than in any other EU country, and they may be paid less than men. The employment gap persists in Ireland even though EU directives on equality and human rights apply to all member states.

Why is the gap so large?

Access to education and employment in Ireland is much easier for able-bodied people than those with disabilities. Disabled people face barriers at every stage. For example:

• Transport: Public transport can be difficult to use and private transport can be too expensive. Disabled people need regular accessible bus and train services to help with job seeking and commuting.
• Rates of pay: Employers are legally allowed to offer disabled workers different rates of pay. Some disabled people have to work as unpaid carers instead of looking for employment. Others have difficulty in arranging childcare.

Support at work: Disabled workers may need their employers to make ‘reasonable accommodation’ (such as installing ramps or adapting working hours) but do not have an official right to be consulted about it.

Key IHREC recommendations

IHREC calls on the Government to put into practice the existing EU and Irish policies on human rights and equality. We have recommended that the State proactively addresses institutional discrimination and structural barriers that affect disabled people’s access to the labour market. In addition, IHREC calls on the Government to:

• Close the remaining gaps in the laws on equal pay and access to job opportunities for disabled people, including the gender pay gap
• Clarify the duty of employers to make reasonable accommodation for disabled employees and consult with them in advance
• Ensure existing schemes deliver human rights and equality for all (including providing integrated childcare and transport supports)

Disabled people have the right to participate in political and public like on an equal basis with others.

Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) sets out the right of disabled people to have and use all political rights.

The State must ensure that voting is accessible to everyone, and that  disabled people have the opportunity run for, and hold, public office. Disabled people have the right to take part fully in public life, including joining non-governmental organisations and forming organisations for disabled people.

IHREC urges the Irish Government to meet the requirements of Article 29 in full. Our specific concerns include:

• Barriers to taking part in political and public life
• Particular difficulties for women
• Shortfalls in the Electoral Reform Act

Barriers to participation

Disabled people face barriers that can make it difficult to take part in political and public life. As a result, too few disabled people take part as voters, candidates for election or members of the Oireachtas, local councils or the European Parliament.

For example, many polling stations are inaccessible to disabled voters. We want all polling stations to be made fully accessible so that disabled people can vote freely and independently.

Disabled women

Some barriers to participation affect disabled women in particular. For example, disabled women face barriers such as childcare, cash, confidence and culture – as we noted in our report to the Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

We call on the Government to overturn such barriers. It should ensure that people from all groups are able to take part in political and public life.  In particular, it should welcome diversity of race, class, disability and gender in public life. See Further resources below for a link to the IHREC report to CEDAW.

The Electoral Reform Act 2022

The Electoral Reform Act has not done enough to address the inequalities that make it difficult to disabled people to participate fully in political and public life.

The Act failed to adopt several of our recommended amendments for the Electoral Reform Act.

Key IHREC recommendations

• The Electoral Commission should work on removing the barriers faced by disabled people and other vulnerable groups.
• Discrimination, hate speech, violence and harassment in political life in Ireland. is increasing, and can prevent disabled people from participating. We call for the Government to impose and enforce rules against hate speech and other such discriminatory behaviour. We recommend making the Electoral Commission responsible for regulating, monitoring and enforcing such rules.