Social Structures – Page 5

International Day of Sign Languages: Promoting Sign Languages and Deaf Culture as part of Human Diversity

Social Structures

Click her for Irish Sign Language Version

Author: Léa Urzel – PhD Researcher ERC Project DANCING, ALL Institute – Department of Law, Maynooth University

Léa Urzel

Today, 23 September 2021, marks the fourth celebration of the International Day of Sign Languages. Currently, Covid-19 continues to affect the lives of people around the world. The ongoing pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges for all, including persons with disabilities. It has further exacerbated the barriers that Deaf people and other sign language users face in their daily lives and highlighted the difficulties encountered in accessing services and information, notably health services and public health information (Panko et al, 2021). At the same time, it has also enhanced the use of national sign languages in public broadcasting as numerous press conferences, public health briefings and other speeches by government officials continue to be broadcast featuring sign language interpretation.

September 15th, United Nations International Day of Democracy: Enjoyment of Democratic Values and Freedoms by Persons with Disabilities

Social Structures

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Matthew McKenna

The Council of Europe (2020) recalls that the word ‘Democracy’ ‘comes from the Greek words “demos“, meaning people, and “kratos“, meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as “power of the people”: a way of governing which depends upon the will of the people’.

Theories and models of democracy and ‘popular governance’ have manifested in innumerate social models and national socio-political dispositions of rule over millennia since the beginnings of ‘Athenian Democracy’ in the 5^th Century BCE. The Greek Directorate of International Relations and European Union of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (2020) provides the following synopsis of the origins of democratic rule that is cherished as part of the underpinning ethos of the favoured model of governance by the modern political establishment within the context of the socio-political order of the European Union (EU) of today: ‘Humans as autonomous entities in the context of organized society, the respect for their personality, freedoms and rights, were fundamental topics in the ancient Greek thought. From the Elegies of Solon (c. 630-560 BC) to the Democracy and Laws of Plato (428/7-348/7), the Politics of Aristotle (384-323/2 BC) and Demosthenes’ fiery speeches (384-323 / 2 BC), the ideas of justice, rule of law, decency, education, virtue and free thought stand out as key ingredients for the ideal regime’.

Ageism and Ableism: The Intersectional Discrimination Faced by Older Adults with Disabilities

Social Structures

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute)

Matthew McKenna

In July 2019, the United Nations (UN) ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, said that:

‘The mainstreaming of the rights of older persons with disabilities into all disability and ageing-related policies and programmes is key to ensure that the concerns and needs of older persons with disabilities are adequately addressed’.

However, older persons with disabilities face an intersectional form of discrimination within the European Union (EU), which derives from the intersection of ‘ableism’ and ‘ageism’. People within the EU are now living longer than ever before, with 101.1 million people aged 65 or over residing within the EU-27 in early 2018. Close to half of all persons over the age of 65 in the EU have some form of disability. Incidences of disability in old age, especially acquired disability, increase substantially amongst individuals in older age categories and, as a result, older persons with disabilities are at increased risk of neglect, loss of supports, abuse and poverty, amongst other risks.

Adaptive Fashion: An Instrument to Enhance Independent Living and Self-Confidence of Persons with Physical Disabilities

Social Structures

Author: Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate – Università degli Studi di Verona (Italy)

Francesca Albi Profile Picture

Accessibility is one of the general principles embodied in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and it is explicitly affirmed by Article 3 (f), Article 9 and other provisions of the Convention. Accessibility must be understood as “the right to use goods, services and facilities available to the public without discrimination, and obtain an equal benefit from them” (Broderick and Ferri, 2019, p. 140). Accordingly, accessibility is strictly linked to the concept of “universal design”, which is an expression of the paradigm-shift embraced by the CRPD (Cera, 2017, pp. 107-118) and which is defined in Article 2 of the CRPD as the “design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”.

A Matter of Trust: Accepting Artificial Intelligence and Robotics-Aided Care to Enhance Independent Living for Persons with Disabilities

Social Structures

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute)

Matthew McKenna

The European Union (EU) is arguably emerging as a global leader in the ethical and human rights-based regulation and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, domestic and wider societal settings in the twenty-first century. On the 8^th of April 2019, the EU High-Level Expert Group on AI presented ‘Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence’. This followed the publication of the guidelines’ first draft in December 2018 on which more than five hundred comments were received through an open consultation.

According to the Guidelines, trustworthy AI should be:

(1) Lawful – Respecting all applicable laws and regulations

(2) Ethical – Respecting ethical principles and values

(3) Robust – Both from a technical perspective while taking into account its social environment

World Youth Skills Day – Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic

Social Structures

Author: Clíona de Bhailís is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy (CDLP), NUI Galway. She has received Irish Research Council funding for her research focusing on Article 12 UNCRPD and young people with disabilities. In her previous role she worked as a Research Assistant on the European Research Council funded ‘Voices of Individuals: Collectively Exploring Self-determination (VOICES)’ project.

Clíona de Bhailís

In 2021 World Youth Skills Day celebrates the creativity and resilience of youth during the COVID 19 pandemic. Young people with disabilities have been particularly impacted by the crisis with schools and services closed, supports limited, and reopening creating additional barriers in accessing many public spaces. Through it all however, they have shown remarkable creativity, resilience and adaptability. This is despite not being consulted or at times even considered by decision makers.

The importance of participation in decision making is often mentioned when discussing research and policy which relates to children and young people. Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is well known in this regard and guarantees children who are ‘capable of forming a view’ the right to express their views on matters which affect them. Their views must then be given due weight based on the child’s age and maturity. The applicability of this right to children with disabilities is reinforced by Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) with two notable differences. These are the absence of the requirement for a child to be ‘capable of forming a view’ and an obligation on States Parties to provide ‘disability and age appropriate assistance’ to support disabled children and young people to express those views. Therefore, all children and young people, regardless of cognitive ability, should be allowed to express their views on matters affecting them, their views should be given due weight and they should have access to the support if necessary. Further, General Comment No. 7 of the UNCRPD clearly outlines that States Parties have a duty to consult with children and young people with disabilities and their representative organisations about policy development and the implementation of the Convention.

Protecting and Promoting Legal Capacity of Persons with Disabilities: Disentangling the Relationship between the CRPD and International Private Law in the Italian Legal System

Social Structures

Author: Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate – Università degli Studi di Verona (Italy)

Francesca Albi

Persons with disabilities represent human diversity and their inherent dignity must be recognised. In legal terms, the protection of human dignity is linked to the recognition and respect of the right to legal capacity, which is established by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). According to this provision, persons with disabilities have the right to legally act on an equal basis with others. Even though they may need support and reasonable accommodations, disability cannot be used to justify the denial of the right of persons with disabilities to make their own choices concerning their lives. To this aim, supported (and not substituted) decision-making mechanisms must be provided to help them in decision-making processes.

Since international mobility of adults (including those with disabilities) is an increasing phenomenon in the contemporary globalized world, international human rights instruments acquire special relevance regarding the exercise of civil rights in transnational situations. In that connection private international law, which has been defined as ‘the body of conventions, model laws, national laws, legal guides, and other documents and instruments that regulate private relationships across national borders’, must be read in conjunction with international human rights norms. To this end, legal scholars (Franzina, 2012; Franzina, 2015; Franzina and Long, 2016, 106-177; Franzina, 2019; Long, 2013) who investigate the transnational protection of the rights of adults with disabilities speak of “integral approach” to identify the mutual influence of international human rights and private international law.

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