United Nations – Ideas in ALL

From the Centre Back to the Margins: Invisibility of Persons with Disabilities in the Draft Convention on the Right to Development

Social Structures

Author: Harry Chikasamba, PhD Researcher, Assistive Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University

Harry Chikasamba

Until 2006, persons with disabilities were invisible in core legally binding human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Unsurprisingly, this was the case because persons with disabilities were being considered as having a lower social status, being dependent and inferior in society. In the early and mid-2000s, persons with disabilities convened as self-advocates in the historical halls of the United Nations (UN) in New York where they exhibited an unwavering spirit of resilience and genuine pursuit of equality which shaped and brought to life the first ever legally binding international human rights treaty in the 21^st century: the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In principle, the CRPD protects and promotes the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, ensuring their full and equal participation in society.

Sadly, the draft Convention on the Right to Development, currently undergoing negotiations at the UN, risks undermining the feeble progress painstakingly made over the past 15 years since the CRPD came into force in 2008. Among other gains, the CRPD has served as the major global catalyst towards viewing persons with disabilities as equal members of society, positioning disability as both a matter of human rights and of development which is evident in the inclusion of disability issues in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Worth noting, disability and persons with disabilities are referred to 11 times in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that make up the 2030 Agenda. Dishearteningly, the invisibility of persons with disabilities in the draft Convention means that, at this juncture, any prospects of advancing disability-inclusive development remain bleak and devoid of hope.

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’.

Promoting Equal Participation and Eliminating Discrimination: Time to Change the Narrative.

Social Lives

Author: Mohamed Maalim – PhD Researcher, of the ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Blue Butterfly with Brown slate background. Zero Discrimination Day 01 March 2021 wording in top right hand corner

The Zero Discrimination day is celebrated annually on the 1st day of March, to reflect on our rich human diversity and the need for equal opportunity to enjoy fundamental human rights, and to fight against discrimination in all its forms and manifestations. This year, above all previous, the ongoing global COVID-19 Pandemic with all its disruptive nature and the misfortune it has brought and caused, has also offered humanity a glimpse of its ‘non-discrimination’ attribute. The advent of COVID-19 reinforced upon us that we are all equal as humans in our susceptibility, our fear and concern for self and others, and indeed in our hope of getting back to as ‘normal life’ as possible or whatever that ‘normal’ means.

Additionally, with Covid-19, we have adopted a common enemy enforcing upon us an almost military-type operation to fight back. The nations of the world in an unprecedented fashion formed ‘NATO’ type alliances and collaborative networks with the ‘Big Tech’ and ‘Big Pharma’ in a concerted effort to develop digital contact tracing and tracking apps‘ and vaccines, respectively. Individual governments assumed the role of commanding officers alongside senior health personnel, frontline healthcare workers, and other so called ‘essential’ workers as the foot soldiers of the operation, while the general public’s hearts and minds were won by calls to stay at home to suppress the virus.

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