Debate contribution: United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 25 November 2024.

MLA

Ms Kellie Armstrong

Party at the time

Alliance Party

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 4675280

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Before I get into the main detail of what I will speak about, it is important that I place on record clarification of something that was incorrectly stated in the House earlier in the debate. The Alliance Party position on start-of-life and end-of-life issues is that they are conscience matters. They are matters that each of us takes quite seriously as individuals, but we do not vote on them as a party. If the proposer of the amendment, who has just left the Chamber, had looked back at the voting record, he would have seen that Alliance Party Members were split on the abortion vote. That is worth noting. Returning to the motion, I will quote from the 2022 report titled 'Progress Towards the Implementation of the UNCRPD in Northern Ireland'. A contributor summed up the feelings of people with disabilities when she said:

"Enough with lip service and nods to what should be done — try doing something to the benefit of disabled people."

Why has the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities not been progressed in Northern Ireland? The UNCRPD is an international human rights treaty that sets out the human rights of deaf and disabled people. It has been agreed by the UK. Since I came to the House, I have noted that every party and independent MLA has supported the introduction of the convention's recommendations, so why has that not happened? The House has failed to progress the UNCRPD because there is not the political will to bring about equity in Northern Ireland. As was said earlier by, I think, Mr Kingston, we are living a life of less value. Parties can prove me wrong by prioritising the rights of people with disabilities in the Programme for Government and by ensuring that funding is invested in positive and targeted actions. As a member of the Committee for Communities, I asked the Minister, who, kindly, came to the Committee, about the reporting mechanisms for something such as the disability strategy. I was aghast when I heard that the Department for Communities would not be reporting on how the other Departments were complying with the disability strategy. If a strategy does not have teeth, with someone to monitor, measure and report back, what is the point of it? When a disability strategy is introduced, I hope that it will have teeth and be a cross-departmental document. As a person with hearing impairments, I am very frustrated by the snail-like pace from the Department for Communities on introducing a disability strategy. What is the hold-up? As a person with disabilities, I am affronted by the fact that it still has not been brought forward. The transparent lack of awareness from the Executive of the necessity for improvements to reduce discriminations for persons with disabilities across Northern Ireland is a disgrace. It is as though the Executive have chosen to ignore the rights of citizens. Every Department must do better to ensure that deaf and disabled people have the same rights as non-disabled people. That includes access to healthcare. For example, why is finding a sign language interpreter so difficult for a patient who is deaf? Some of you may have received communications about a deaf lady who had to go through giving birth without a sign language interpreter to help her. How isolating was that? Why were do not resuscitate orders issued for people with disabilities, especially people with learning disabilities, during COVID? I ask the pro-life Members this: when did you cry out against that? I am disgusted that the lives of people with learning difficulties were to be ended purely because they had learning difficulties, had COVID and were in hospital. Honestly. The Health and Social Care hospital passport scheme has been developed, but why do no front-line staff know anything about it? It could help people with learning disabilities who are non-verbal. Why do people with disabilities and their families have to fight for appropriate access to healthcare all the time? I can go on. It is about access to transport. Why do people with mobility issues or wheelchair users have to book transport 24 hours in advance when nobody else has to? When it comes to education, why are so many pupils with special educational needs left without a school place? Why, almost every year, do we have a child left abandoned on a school bus? When adopted, the UNCRPD actions would enable access to an appropriate home, yet the design and provision of accessible accommodation has some of social housing's longest waiting lists. When it comes to access to employment, why is it always part-time and short-term contracts? Why can we not have support for permanent employment? By adopting UNCRPD recommendations into legislation, Northern Ireland can move from being one of the least inclusive places for people with disabilities to one of the most progressive. I want Northern Ireland to be more equitable. To be equitable, positive action needs to be taken —

— to enable every citizen to have equal inclusion and access.

844 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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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.

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