February 2016 NUI Galway Conference To Explore Right to Make Decisions for People with Disabilities

The Centre for Disability Law and Policy to hold conference on Voices of Individuals: Collectively Exploring Self determination project

NUI Galway’s Centre for Disability Law and Policy project, The Voices of Individuals: Collectively Exploring Self-determination (VOICES) will hold its opening conference on Friday, 26 February at the Wood Quay Venue in Dublin.

The conference will explore the experiences of people with disabilities in exercising, or being denied, their right to make decisions about their lives, known as legal capacity. It will focus on people’s lived experiences in the following areas – consent to sex, consent to medical treatment, contracts and the criminal justice system. Speakers include people with disabilites, academics, and activists with experience of using stories to drive social change.

Professor Gábor Gombos, a world-renowned independent disability rights defender, will deliver the keynote address. Professor Gombos says: “It is important that people with disabilities are at the heart of advocating for a just and inclusive world, where all persons with disabilities enjoy their human rights without any kind of discrimination. The right to legal capacity is at the very core of this.”

Mr Rusi Stanev will respond to the keynote with his experiences of being denied legal capacity and his involvement in a landmark case on this issue in the European Court of Human Rights. The Honorable Kristin Booth Glen will also respond with her insights on these issues, from her 15 years experience serving on the New York City Civil Court and the New York State Supreme Court.

Dr Eilionóir Flynn, Principal Investigator on the VOICES Project and Deputy Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway, said: “This conference, and indeed the project as a whole, places a focus on the experiences of people with disabilities and is designed to give people with disabilities a voice regarding their right to legal capacity.”

The VOICES project is funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant, awarded to Dr Eilionóir Flynn, the youngest person to ever receive such an award.

The conference is a free event and registration remains open until Monday, 22 February.

Further information is available at www.ercvoices.com or email Clíona on ercvoices@nuigalway.ie or 091 494272. Participant accessibility requests and enquiries are welcomed.

ENDS