ShareFacebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Email Print ‘Civil death’ for people with intellectual disabilities by admin 16 June, 2013, 2:42 pm 0 Comments 36 — villageJune – July 2013present, and convince people of, viable alterna-tives which together constitute degrowth, and to outline realistic strategies to get there. These alternatives will involve a shift from jobs that produce ‘goods’ for consumption to jobs that maintain goods for use – a move away from capi-talism which sees capital, and its maximisation, as an end in itself. The change will value, and rejoice in, service, care work and local provisioning. The trend is already there (davis 2012). Galbraith (2008) argues only 17% of employment is actu-ally required for the production of goods. redistribution and predistribution will be addressed in these alternatives. This will involve a focus on the distribution of work (paid and unpaid), care (paid and unpaid) and income. degrowth is about work not as an end in itself, but instead it registers the type, quality and distribu-tion of work. It is concerned with the distribution of jobs, the length of the working week, the quality of jobs, the care they provide, the education and satisfaction they inculcate. some countries, including France and Germany, have reduced working weeks as a strategy to man-age the crisis. The euroMemo Group (2013) argues for a 30-hour week and simms (2012) argues for a 21-hour week – challenging the fetishism of growth. This has specifc gender dimensions. Fudge and owens (2006) advocate the restructuring of working time to decrease stress, increase gender equality and facilitate healthy work-life balance. direct environmental gains can be linked to a reduced working week (Gough 2013).degrowth posits stronger employee represen-tation, more efective government monitoring, and the normalisation of reduced working time. social policy can become an agent of degrowth: ‘part time’ work can be supported through changes in employment regulations (as in the Netherlands and austria). Changes in social wel-fare can facilitate new forms of work (as in the Nordic countries). Tax reform with refundable tax credits can better support low-income work-ers (as in many oeCd countries). redistribution of domestic work across genders can be encour-aged through paid paternal leave.Investment should reorient towards social investment and be imaginatively harnessed. For example, the eu social Investment Package (eC 2013), is intended to focus on employment in childcare, preventative social services, education and training, housing and health. Committing a percentage of eu budgets to this social investment should be a core part of the strategy. degrowth allows us to put the economy back in its place, to re-embed the economy in the social and political, through democratic action. Taking the focus of growth means development will be measured in more progressive ways, valuing care and happiness. ecologically there should be an enthusiastic shift from a consumer to a recy-cling society, and from planned obsolescence to an economy of maintenance. artifcial demand should be dampened by high taxes on advertising; and self-serving consumerism diminished by ban-ning billboard advertising. This has been efected in vermont, Hawaii, Maine, and alaska. degrowth implies simplifed lifestyles with less individualism and more emphasis on the collec-tive. The ethos of living within our means will undermine debt-based growth. a life not dom-inated by waged work will give us time to think and act democratically and to foster more mature power relations. we have choices. The options we choose will be a refection of our values, of our vision and of what we consider to have failed. we need to afrm and promote values grounded in humanism and the republican ideals of democracy, equality, solidarity, participation, activism, transparency, mutual interdependence and care, ecology and sustainability. The politics of making it happen will not be easy. while Irish politics is now very volatile it is not yet clear that we are experiencing the shift-ing political cleavages that might lead to a radical second Irish republic. But there is now an obvi-ous opportunity driven by the present crisis and the public appetite for optimistic and idealistic commemoration over the next decade, to pro-mote wiser values. any Irish republic worthy of the name will be built on an active citizenry. New public spheres and even new language will facilitate the move towards a radical civic republic. we must start by recognising through analysis the failures in the current system to promote the shift in power towards more democratic control of production, and an orienting of that production towards social and environmental agendas, rather than proft. dr Mary Murphy and Professor Peadar Kirby are authors of ‘Towards a second republic: Irish Politics after the Celtic Tiger’ published by Pluto Press in 2011.politics1960Oil CrisisCollapse of FSUAsianFinancial CrisisGlobalFinancial Crisis4681019701980199020002010100150200TimeFossil Fuel CO² emissions (PgC/y)Carbon Intensity of the Economy (gC/$US)US Savings& Loan CrisisCarbon Intensity“Today, care, love, knowledge and nature itself are all commodifed. The very essence of humanity is monetised and marketised“regulation, in this sense, will be regarded as a liberation, not a subversion 376ZLWFKWR83&DQGVDYHHYHUHDUHYHUHDUö 7RVWDUWVDYLQJYLVLWXSFLH6HUYLFHVVXEMHFWWRDYDLODELOLW7HUPVDQGFRQGLWLRQVDSSO6DYLQJVEDVHGRQ6N V0L[ZLWK+’DQG(6313DFNSOXVHLUFRP V0E$GYDQFHGDQG7DONWLPH&KDWWHU3DFN:DWFKWKH%DUFODV3UHPLHU/HDJXHRQ83&79LOODJH0DJ)3LQGG 38 — villageJune – July 2013wHaT group in society is denied the right to right to vote, make a will, have sexual relations, travel abroad, make medical decisions and marry? at frst thought it might be those incarcerated for the most heinous of crimes. Yet this is the fate of over 3,000 people who have committed no crime. These are people with an intellectual disability, serious mental health difculties, dementia or acquired brain injury. It is incomprehensible that legislation allow-ing this situation: the obsolete lunacy regulation (Ireland) act, 1871, remains on our statute books. The High Court continues to hear petitions under this law. a person can be made a ward of court under this law. once made a ward of court, a person is denied the right to exercise legal capac-ity. legal capacity refers to the capacity both to have rights and, most importantly, to exercise those rights. The denial of legal capacity has been described as ‘civil death’.The ward of court system refects what is referred to as the medical model of disability. The medical model views people with disabili-ties, including people with intellectual disabilities, as objects for charity, in need of treatment or care, and incapable of making their own decisions. For years this model has informed disability policy in Ireland. People with disabilities were hidden away in institutions, segregated from mainstream society. Today, almost 4,000 people with an intel-lectual disability remain sequestered in these institutions. In december 2006 the Convention on the rights of Persons with disabilities (CrPd) and its optional Protocol was adopted at the uN General assembly. The CrPd reafrms the right of all per-sons with a disability to enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It rejects the medical model of disability. It views people with disabili-ties, including people with intellectual disabilities, as people with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on free and informed consent. The CrPd brings together the fundamental rights contained in all other international human-rights treaties covering civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. It provides the frame-work for how these rights should be protected and promoted, and posits a legal obligation on governments to give efect to these rights. The CrPd entered into force in May 2008. 130 nations have ratifed the CrPd and 76 have ratifed both the CrPd and the optional Protocol. Ireland was one of the frst countries to sign the CrPd in March 2007. However, it remains one of the few eu Member states still to ratify the CrPd though it is now under increasing international pressure to do so. The continued failure of government to introduce legal Capacity legislation means that ratifcation of the CrPd cannot proceed. This legislation has now been on the ‘a list’ of fve successive legislative programmes. These delays call into question the government’s commitment to the human rights of people with intellectual disabilities.The CrPd imposes an obligation on gov-ernments actively to involve civil society in the framework for national implementation and monitoring. However, the committee estab-lished to advise the government on the legislative and administrative measures required to enable ratifcation has no member with a disability or representative from a civil-society organisation. The CrPd should be ratifed and incorporated into Irish law without further delay. The active and meaningful involvement of people with a dis-ability and their organisations in preparation for this ratifcation should now be facilitated. The CPrd places a legal obligation on the gov-ernment to introduce a framework for national implementation and monitoring. at least one part of this framework is required to adhere to the uN Paris Principles for the independence of National Human rights Institutions. The government has given a commitment that the new Irish Human rights and equality Commission (IHreC) will meet the requirements of the Paris Principles. It is essential that the IHreC be designated as the independent body to monitor implementation of the CrPd. Jim winters is advocacy & rights ofcer with Inclusion Ireland, the national advocacy organisation for people with an intellectual disability. politicsjim winters‘Civil death’ for people with intellectual disabilities People with an intellectually disability need their internationally-recognised equal rights, including to legal capacity, not charity“The committee established to advise the government has no member with a disability or representative from a civil-society organisation 39Travellers don’t get much of a men-tion in the Programme for Government. That’s what happens when you are a small minority, times are harsh and equality is quietly slipping of the agenda. Travellers might have taken consolation from the commitment to “tackling Ireland’s economic crisis in a way that is fair, balanced, and which recognises the need for social solidarity”. If any Travellers did, they must be well disillusioned by now.Pavee Point recently published research by Brian Harvey that concludes that the headline fgures on the efects of austerity policies on Travellers “tell an egregious story of an extraor-dinary level of disinvestment by the Irish state in the Traveller community”.overall, government spending has dropped by 4.3%, from 153.4bn in 2008 to 151.1bn in 2012. In the same period government spending on Traveller education was reduced by 86.6%, on the special initiative for the employment of Travellers by 50%, and on Traveller accommo-dation by 85%.The one mention Travellers got in the Programme for Government was a commitment to “promote greater co-ordination and inte-gration of delivery of services to the Traveller community across government, using available resources more efectively to deliver on princi-ples of social inclusion, particularly in the area of Traveller education”. Political promises must be one of the most devalued currencies in this fnancial crisis. Traveller education has not fared well. The visiting Teacher service was closed in 2011, the system of resource Teachers for Travellers in 2011 also, and thirty-three senior Traveller Training Centres in 2012. Interagency activi-ties supported by the department of Justice and equality were closed down in 2012.The Pavee Point report highlights not only reductions in expenditure but also signifcant underspends in all these areas. In the period from 2008 to 2012 only 64% of the fund-ing allocated for Traveller accommodation, for example, was spent by local authorities. This cannot be justifed by reduced need. There were 1,824 Traveller households identifed in 2011 as needing accommodation.There has also been an extraordinary increase in the number of Traveller families being dispersed in private rented accommoda-tion over this period. seven per cent of Traveller families were in private rented accommodation in 1998. This fgure has risen to 32% in 2011. dispersal isolates Travellers from their wider family and community networks and removes them from a context where their culture is lived and afrmed.This calls to mind the 1963 report of the Commission on Itinerancy – a report that has been discredited as racist and assimilationist. The 1963 Commission stated “it is not consid-ered that there is any alternative to a positive drive for housing itinerants if a permanent solution of the problem of itinerancy, based on absorption and integration is to be achieved”.In the search for funding to cut, it is always easiest to start with those areas where the back-lash will be limited and isolated from any popular support. The government has also taken steps to ensure any such outcry is muted. The funding for national Traveller organisations has been reduced by 63.6% between 2008 and 2012. In the same period funding for Traveller commu-nity development projects has been reduced by 32.1%. The voice of Travellers has been under-mined and their ability to resist these cutbacks has been diminished.across society, communities and their organisations have increasingly turned in on themselves and their own issues. This has left lit-tle room for solidarity and shared action. There has been a failure to mobilise for equality. as a result, there is limited popular demand for this value to animate Government.Maybe, though, it is payback time. over the last two decades Traveller and Traveller organi-sations made signifcant progress in highlighting the racism experienced by Travellers and in asserting the ethnic identity of Travellers. The administration gave some ground under pres-sure but the old thinking never went away. Crisis has provided the opportunity to reassert this old thinking. In the short-term, absorp-tion is cheaper than recognition. The 1963 Commission report never went away. politicsniall crowleyThere’s something about government and Travellers spending on Travellers has been smashed, and their voice drowned by 64% cuts to their organisationsGovernment cares little, and less“From 2008 to 2012 only 64% of the funding allocated for Traveller accommodation was spent, though there were 1,824 Traveller households needing accommodation ShareFacebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Email See more Previous article Lairdie, Lairdie Back All Entries Next article Monty Python in 1980s Ireland
