Stories/Lived Experience
Author: James Cawley, Business Development Executive at the Irish Centre for Diversity, Disability Rights Activist, and Member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Disability Advisory Committee
James Cawley is a disabled activist from County Longford and an alumnus of Maynooth University who is currently working as a Business Development Executive at the Irish Centre for Diversity. He is also a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) and has worked in numerous capacities and functions in the areas of education and disability rights advocacy. He has represented persons with disabilities in public and governmental fora, having recently served on the Irish Government’s Disability Stakeholder Group (DSG 6) in 2022 after his appointment to the group by the incumbent Minister of State for Disability, Anne Rabbitte.
The function of the DSG 6 is to play an important role in the ‘monitoring of the government’s disability policies and strategies’ and it comprises a membership representative of a diverse group of people from the disabled community.
The DSG 6 oversees and monitors the implementation of disability policy in the Irish state, having played an instrumental role in surveying the application and implementation of the National Disability Inclusion Strategy 2017 – 2021 (NDIS), which was extended by one year to the end of 2022.
Most recently, James was selected as a European Disability Forum candidate as an Irish delegate to represent Disabled people at the Fifth European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities (EPPD) taking place in Brussels on 23rd May 2023. The delegation is being facilitated by the Disability Federation of Ireland.
The Inclusion Europe website describes the event, “The European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities is a platform to discuss the rights of persons with disabilities and decide on the political demands of the European disability movement. The event takes place in the European Parliament in Brussels, usually one year ahead of the European Elections”. The EPPD is a critical component of person-centred disability-rights promotion by Disabled people through their rallying mantra of ‘nothing about us without us’, who play a critical role in the formulation of disability law and policy in the EU. In addition, the EPPD empowers persons with disabilities to monitor and readjust disability policies that will have a profound effect on their future autonomy, freedoms and personal decision-making capacity in the eyes of the law. It represents a vital politico-legal instrument to further empower persons with disabilities to ensure that they can enjoy equal rights and legal status in contemporary European society.
When discussing his selection as a delegate to the EPPD, James told the Longford Leader:
“I am thrilled to be selected to go to the parliament in May and to bring my lived experience and activism to this collective event. I believe the delegation is a strong and committed team of disabled people with diverse perspectives and lived experience who will engage with their disabled colleagues from all member states. I think it is so important more now than ever that Disabled people speak up for themselves or join a collective space where they feel they can be heard. As an activist I’m willing to bring that single advocacy piece into collective activism and this is the opportunity to do so”.
The theme for the 2023 EPPD event is “Building an inclusive future for persons with disabilities in the EU”, and it will comprise over 600 disability advocates, policymakers and other stakeholders. Delegates will be attending panels and plenary debates which will be taking place in the hemicycle of the European Parliament, on the following topics:
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
• Political and Civil Participation
• Free Movement
• A More Social Europe
• The EU’s Resilience to Crisis
Attendees will also have ample opportunities to develop personal and professional networks with one another. This represents a fundamental aspect of the EPPD that is of great importance as persons with disabilities and policy-makers develop their influence, support-base and powers of united agency at an EU level, and also at a local level among individual member states. The EPPD has gained increased traction, participation and influence since it was held in the first form of its iteration in December 1993, then titled the ‘First European Disabled People’s Parliament’. The latest, and fourth session of the EPPD, was held in December 2017, and among the items on the agenda, the key emphasis was placed on development of the ‘Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SRPD) 2021 – 2030’ and the ‘Right to Participate in Public and Political Life for Persons with Disabilities’.
Building on the results of the fourth EPPD, the fifth session aims to further improve the rights of persons with disabilities residing within the borders of the EU by addressing the issues of ‘freedom of movement’ and ‘full participation’, as well as ‘combating inequality, social exclusion and poverty’. It is hoped that this will build on the achievements of the European Disability Strategy 2010 – 2020, and compliment the current strategic goals of the SRPD 2021 – 2030 which aims to fulfil trifold objectives of disability rights promotion by enabling persons with disabilities to:
• Enjoy EU Rights
• Live Independently and Autonomously
• Participate and be Protected from Discrimination
EU Commission President, Ursula Von Der Leyen is quoted by Inclusion Europe in outlining the aspirations the SRPD 2021 – 2030:
“Persons with disabilities have the right to have good conditions in the workplace, to live independently, to equal opportunities, to participate fully in the life of their community. All have a right to a life without barriers. And it is our obligation, as a community, to ensure their full participation in society, on an equal basis with others.”
Thus, the fifth EPPD, just like the four that came before it over the past thirty years, comprise watershed milestones towards the realisation of an inclusive Europe for persons with disabilities. The participation and leadership of persons with disabilities in the 2023 EPPD who, like James Cawley, are dedicating their lives to the promotion of disability rights and the removal of barriers to autonomy, participation and inclusion, represents the driving force of change through the ethos of ‘nothing about us without us’. It means that persons with disabilities are leading this historical change, both as a wider demographic group, but also while having a personal input in the making of history through their participation at an individual level at the EPPD.