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United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Thursday 8 March 2018

History has been made in Ireland. The motion to ratify (sign into law) the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was passed in Dail Eireann.

The UNCRPD is the human rights convention for people with disabilities. It is a list of rights guaranteed to people with disabilities to improve access to society, education and employment. Ireland signed up to the UNCRPD in 2007. It has taken 10 long years to complete the process.

Cope Foundation’s Advocacy Council and our skilled self-advocates have been working tirelessly to learn about this convention and to create awareness of it across the organisation.

In March 2017 members of our Advocacy Council travelled to Dublin (pictures below) along with people from over 100 disability organisations to participate in a disability rights demonstration calling on the government to ratify the UNCRPD immediately.

Here is a clip from the day of Noreen O’ Driscoll, one of our most experienced self-advocates that  featured on Trade Union TV (first 10 seconds):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWo8XdDNxFg

Congratulations to everyone that has supported this campaign. Our hard work and commitment has paid off. It is now time to get busy ensuring that the rights of people with disabilities as laid out in the UNCRPD are upheld going forward!

Together we are doing great things!