NUI Galway is coordinating a Europe wide programme to shape and improve our disability laws and policies by training the next generation of disability advocates.
The Disability and Advocacy Research for Europe programme at NUIG will recruit 15 researchers from around Europe over the next three years to develop recommendations for new disability laws and policies.
These new policies are meant to help Europe’s governments get in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Ireland signed the Convention back in 2007, and in March of this year it was ratified into law by the Dáil.
Now it;s up to the government and society to ensure that people with disabilities enjoy all the rights, freedoms, and dignities everyone is entitled to without discrimination.
Dr. Eilinóir Flynn, Principal Investigator with the programme, said: “The primary aim of DARE is to equip a new generation of researchers to respond to global challenges facing persons with disabilities and policy makers.
“Its goal is to give legitimacy, through research, to the lived experience of persons with disabilities, as a basis for law reform.”
To enable its work, the DARE training network has received a grant of €4.1 million from the European Commission’s Marie Curie programme.
It’s being led by the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway, working in partnership with seven other institutions in Europe.
The others taking part are the Institute for Social and Political Sciences, Portugal; Maastricht University, Netherlands; University of Leeds, UK; the European Disability Forum; the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities; the University of Iceland; and Swiss Paraplegic Research.
All of the researchers recruited into this programme will be aided in their crucial studies by working with some of the leading groups advocating for the rights of people with a disability around the world.
Groups like Age Platform Europe, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions, Vision Sense, the European Association of Palliative Care, and many more.
Recruitment for the DARE programme will begin in September of 2019.
