On today, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December 2012, the Congress Disability Committee met in Congress House. Reflecting on this year's chosen Theme: "Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all", the Committee looked back on their work during 2012 including:
Our seminar in October to consider the impact of the economic crisis on people with disabilities and how we can build alliances to fight back:
Our Disability Forum in partnership with the NDA Disability Forum in April :
Our input to the Trade Union Commission making the case for continued and enhanced engagement with equality issues by the trade union movement; proposing the adoption of commitment to equality mainstreaming; and proposing enhanced ways of working to further profile the movement's commitment to equality and campaigning on issues of concern to the movement;
Our input to Congress submissions on changes to our Equality infrastructure including reforms of the employment rights bodies and the merger of the Equality Authority and the Human Rights Commission;
Our support for the November Disability Rights march – excellent record of march here:
Noting the results earlier this year of the NDA survey of people's attitudes to disability - , we vowed to redouble our efforts to ensure that the still significant barriers to the full participation of people with disabilities are removed from our trade unions, workplaces and wider society. In our view, the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the best mechanism to eliminate discrimination and exclusion and we urge the Irish Government to urgently speed up the process of ratification.
The Committee also marked the contribution of and bade a sad farewell to Frank Warwick, IBOA, who attended his last meeting.
