Commission backs legally enforceable rights for disabled

A call for legally enforceable rights for disabled people to be contained in a forthcoming law has been endorsed by the Irish…

A call for legally enforceable rights for disabled people to be contained in a forthcoming law has been endorsed by the Irish Human Rights Commission.

The commission has sanctioned the recommendation of the Disability Legislation Consultation Group. It states that people with disabilities who are denied services they need should be entitled, under any new law, to bring the State to the courts to secure them.

The commission's position will contribute to the ongoing debate about the contents of the Disability Bill, which is due to be published in the autumn.

The Government has already indicated that it favours an independent appeals system for people with disabilities to seek to secure services, as an alternative to the courts.

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This position is an attempt to forge a compromise between lobby groups for the disabled and the Government, after the original disability bill was withdrawn last year amid strong opposition.

The commission, which is charged with promoting and protecting human rights, details its stance in an observation paper. It hopes it will contribute to "a rational debate" on any future bill, "one that takes Ireland's existing international law obligations as its main departure point".

The paper focuses on the consultation group's recommendation that future law should provide for "legal redress, complaints and appeals" in the context of the provision of services to meet peoples' needs, which would be independently assessed.

This proposed legal right would go beyond merely challenging how the independent assessment was made, the commission says. "It would also potentially reach the question of the delivery (or non-delivery) of those services as well as the manner by which they were delivered.

"This question has transcendent significance as it goes to the issue of whether general economic, social and cultural rights can be (or should be) interpreted to confer individually enforceable rights (so-called 'subjective' social rights). This is one of the defining questions of our times and it has relevance far beyond the confines of the disability debate."

The commission says its aim in researching and drafting the observation paper was to inquire if international law supports this proposal by the group. "We conclude that international law is indeed supportive of such a claim," the paper says.

The international legal obligations which the commission examined fall under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Ireland ratified in 1989.

The commission also concludes that the covenant's monitoring body has "left open the door" to possible other administrative remedies. These could include an ombudsman or other independent appeals mechanism, as the Government has proposed. However, such administrative remedies should be "accessible, affordable, timely and effective".

The Government was forced to shelve the last disability bill last year over a clause which would have prevented disabled people suing the State for inadequate services. The authorities subsequently invited disability groups to set up the consultation group, which reported to Mr Willie O'Dea, Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform last February.

In its report the group says people should have access to redress through the courts to enforce rights granted in the legislation. It also wants the law to contain "no provision, direct or indirect, that precludes the rights of people to take legal action".