Debate contribution: United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on .
- MLA
- Mr Colm Gildernew
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 25 November 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4675236
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank Members for bringing this important motion to the Assembly. Next Tuesday, 3 December, we will celebrate the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities. On that day, we recognise the valuable contribution that people with disabilities make to our society and support them in raising awareness of the challenges that they face every day. People with disabilities often experience extreme difficulties in accessing services, gaining employment and availing themselves of the opportunities that most of us here take for granted. People with disabilities also struggle to have their voices heard and to have their concerns addressed. According to the 2021 census, almost a quarter of our population is living with some form of disability. Each of us will know people in our communities who live with disabilities, and many of us will, at some stage in our lives, experience some form of disability. In recent weeks, the Communities Committee received a briefing from Geraldine McGahey from the Equality Commission about future disability law reform. One of the statistics that we learned from that briefing was that 55% of all calls to the Equality Commission in 2023-24 were due to discrimination on the grounds of disability, which is, indeed, a damning statistic.
We also heard how our current laws on protecting those with a disability are outdated, limited and inconsistent. Those gaps do not provide the level of protection that exists in neighbouring jurisdictions, nor does the legislation keep pace with developing international standards.
The ongoing failure to simplify, harmonise and modernise a single equality approach is negatively impacting on individuals, employers and services, including by providing no protection against indirect discrimination. Deaf and disabled people are vulnerable to discrimination due to our ineffective and piecemeal disability equality legislation, as was outlined in the August 2024 RaISe paper, which provides a comparative study of equality legislation. It is fundamentally unfair that different equality groups have different protections without any justifiable reason. Next week, I will join Disability Action and Belfast City Council at a conference that has been organised to celebrate and to consider ways to further improve access to employment and educational opportunities, alongside public and political life. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the basis on which disabled persons' rights should be enshrined in our laws going forward. We must have laws that are based on the principles of inclusion, equality of opportunity and respect for difference. The previous Minister for Communities, Deirdre Hargey, began the work of creating a new disability strategy. A key component of that work was the input of the co-design group, which gave people with disabilities a direct role in producing that important strategy. The disability co-design group must continue to have a direct input to the disability strategy, and the Minister should re-engage with the group at the earliest opportunity. Four years have passed since the work on the disability strategy commenced, and it has long since passed the time when the strategy should be published. In closing, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, agus a chairde
I say that the Minister needs to urgently publish the disability strategy with a time-bound implementation plan and take whatever legislative steps are required to ensure that our laws are fit for purpose when it comes to protecting the rights of all disabled people here.
553 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.95).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.99).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.05 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.95 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.99 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.01 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:40 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.