UCDSU partake in CRPD Ratification Protest
By Eithne Dodd | Jan 24 2017
LAST Thursday, the 19th of January, UCDSU took part in a march outside Leinster House to protest Ireland’s non-ratification of the United Nations Convention of Rights for People with Disabilities (CRPD).The UCDSU was joined by the students’ unions of Trinity, DCU, NUI Galway as well as the USI alongside others. There are over 600,000 people living with some kind of disability in Ireland.The UCDSU website said: “this absolutely vital piece of documentation states the basic human rights of people with disabilities of any kind, and it’s shameful that our government don’t recognise it.”Although Ireland did sign up to the framework in 2007, after 10 years, the convention is not legally binding here. 150 countries have ratified the convention and Ireland is the only member of the EU that has not ratified the CRPD.A first year Trinity student, Niamh Herbert, organised the protest and along with another Trinity student Laura Beston founded a charity called “Disability and I” to raise awareness of people with disabilities in Ireland.Following the demonstration, Richard Boyd Barrett asked Francis Fitzgerald to give a firm date for when the legislation for the CRPD will be brought through the Dáil. The Minister has set the date for the second week of February.