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Michael Bach

Michael Bach is Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Community Living, a national federation of over 40,000 members, 400 local and 13 Provincial/Territorial Associations for Community Living. Michael Bach is Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Community Living, a national federation of over 40,000 members, 400 local and 13 Provincial/Territorial Associations for Community Living.  He is also Managing Director of The Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society – IRIS.

For over twenty years, he has undertaken research and development on law, policies and programs in Canada and internationally on ways to advance the full inclusion and human rights of persons with intellectual disabilities. Michael Bach is Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Community Living, a national federation of over 40,000 members, 400 local and 13 Provincial/Territorial Associations for Community Living.  He is also Managing Director of The Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society – IRIS. For over twenty years, he has undertaken research and development on law, policies and programs in Canada and internationally on ways to advance the full inclusion and human rights of persons with intellectual disabilities.  His research covers a range of policy areas including education, employment, and funding and delivery of community-based services, and he has published numerous monographs, articles, and chapters in books.  His particular area of expertise is in legal capacity of people with intellectual disabilities, and he recently completed a study for the Law Commission of Ontario with Lana Kerzner titled A New Legal Paradigm for Protecting Autonomy and the Right to Legal Capacity.  He also recently co-authored Journey to Inclusive Education in the Indian Sub-Continent with Mithu Alur, published by Routledge Press. He holds a PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.  His dissertation focused on developing a more inclusive theory of personhood on which to challenge the usual equation between intellectual disability and legal incapacity.

Lee-Anne Basser

Gauthier de Beco

Gauthier de Beco holds a J.D. from the University of Leuven, an LL.M. (Master of Laws) from the University of Nottingham and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Louvain.

He is currently post-doctoral researcher at the Leuven Institute for Human Rights and Critical Studies (LIHRICS) of the University of Leuven where he does research on national human rights institutions and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He was previously teaching assistant at the Faculty of Laws of the University of Louvain (2005-2009) and taught international human rights at the School of Public Policy of University College London (2011-2012). He also worked at the Chambers of the International Criminal Court (2004-2005), the Human Rights Unit of the Belgian Ministry of Justice (2009-2011) and the CRPD Unit of the Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (2012).

Gauthier de Beco is the author of three books as well as many articles in the field of human rights. He recently edited a book on ’Article 33 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: National Structures for the Implementation and Monitoring of the Convention’ published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. He is also a regular consultant on Article 33 CRPD to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and several NGOs. He recently updated and completed a Study on the implementation of Article 33 in Europe commissioned by the OHCHR Regional Office for Europe.

Gauthier de Beco is on the editorial board of the Revue trimestrielle des droits de l’homme and reviews articles for several other legal journals.

Jerome Bickenbach

Disability Policy Unit Head, Swiss Paraplegic Research Steering Committee member, ICF Research Branch of WHO Collaborating Centre for the Family of International Classifications in German Department of Health Sciences & Health Policy at the University of Lucerne

Dr. Jerome Bickenbach is a full professor and holds the Research Chair in the Department of Philosophy and Faculties of Law and Medicine at Queen’s University. He is the author of Physical Disability and Social Policy (1993) and the co-editor of Introduction to Disability (1998), Disability and Culture: Universalism and Diversity (2000), A Seat at the Table: Persons with Disabilities and Policy Making (2001), Quality of Life and Human Difference (2003) and numerous articles and chapters in disability studies, focusing on the nature of disability and disability law and policy. He was a content editor of Sage Publications’ five 5 volume Encyclopaedia of Disability. His most recent book is Ethics, Law and Policy in the Sage Disability Resource Library. Since 1995 he has been a consultant with the World Health Organization (WHO) working on drafting, testing and implementation of the ICF, and continues to consult with WHO on international disability social policy. His research is in disability studies, using qualitative and quantitative research techniques within the paradigm of participatory action research. Most recently his research includes disability quality of life and the disability critique, disability epidemiology, universal design and inclusion, modelling disability statistics for population health surveys, the relationship between disability and wellbeing, disability and ageing issues and the application of ICF to monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As a lawyer, Prof. Bickenbach was a human rights litigator, specializing in anti-discrimination for persons with intellectual impairments and mental illness. Since 2007, he has headed the Disability Policy Unit at Swiss Paraplegic Research in Nottwil, Switzerland and is Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Lucerne.

Dennis Driscoll

Dennis Driscoll is a former Dean of the Law School at NUI Galway, where he taught International Law, International Human Rights, and Corporate Social Responsibility.  He is also a former Visiting Professor at Harvard University and at Peking University Law School, where in 2004-2005, as the Raoul Wallenberg Institute Visiting Professor of Human Rights, he became the first Professor of Human Rights in the history of China

Since the late 1990s, he has pursued his interests in Corporate Social Responsibility and in Comparative Corporate Governance.

He has given workshops on CSR or Corporate Governance to more than 500 companies in Europe and in Emerging Markets, especially in China, and, more recently, in the Middle East and Africa.

He is currently Visiting Professor of Management at Strathclyde Business School and at Koç University Business School in Istanbul.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway.

Steven Estey

Based in Canada, Steven Estey is an independent consultant on international disability rights.  For many years he was the human rights officer at Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI), an International NGO, focussing on the Human Rights of disabled people.  

Steven has travelled widely, working with Disabled Peoples’ Organizations, Governments, and UN Agencies.  Over time he has developed wide experience in the areas of international cooperation, economic development, human rights and disability.   He has testified before Parliamentary committees in Canada and spoken on Human Rights and people with disabilities at the United Nations and in many countries around the world.  

From 2003, until the successful conclusion of the negotiations in 2006, Steven was the Adviser to Canada’s official delegation to the UN, which drafted the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD). At the same time he was the staff support person at DPI sharing information and assisting members to prepare for meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee.  After the CRPD was adopted by the UN General Assembly, in 2006 Steven led DPIs work to encourage UN members to both sign and ratify the treaty.  Steven left DPI in 2010 and has since worked globally on a variety of initiatives targeted at effective implementation and robust monitoring of the CRPD with UN Agencies, NGOs and National Human Rights Institutions.  

Eilionóir Flynn

Eilionóir is currently working as a researcher at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy on the a project titled, “ Advancing Ireland’s National Disability Strategy: Building on Comparative and International Innovation”. This project will undertake a detailed examination of the structure of Irish disability law and policy, using the upcoming review of the National Disability Strategy as a catalyst for change.

Her research interests include assisted and supported decision-making, rights-enforcement mechanisms and access to justice generally.

She has tutored in Constitutional Law and Legal Aspects of Professional Nursing at University College Cork (UCC).

Eilionóir graduated with a BCL from UCC in 2006 and has completed her PhD thesis there entitled "Advocacy Services for People with Disabilities – A Comparative Study of Disability Rights Enforcement in Ireland and Victoria”. Her thesis explores the potential of a right to advocacy to improve access to justice for people with disabilities and examines the implementation of this right in the domestic legal framework of both comparative jurisdictions, using principles of international human rights law as a basis for reform.

As part of her PhD research she attended La Trobe University, Melbourne, as an Honorary Visiting Fellow in 2007 to work with Professor Lee Ann Basser and to observe practice at the Office of the Public Advocate. Eilionóir also received a Government of Ireland Scholarship for her PhD research from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences during 2008-2009. She has presented her work at a number of national and international conferences and is currently focusing on publishing the findings of her PhD.

Eve Hill

Eve Hill is a nationally known disability rights advocate and expert on disability rights law.  Ms. Hill is Senior Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she is a member of the Civil Rights Division’s leadership team and is responsible for oversight of the Division’s disability rights enforcement, as well as oversight of the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices and the American Indian Working Group.  Highlights of Ms. Hill’s work at the Department’s include work on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, accessibility of websites and other digital technology, Olmstead community integration requirements, and disability rights in education.

Ms. Hill was previously Of Counsel with the law firm of Brown Goldstein & Levy, where she helped lead the firm’s disability rights practice.  Prior to joining Brown Goldstein & Levy, Ms. Hill was Senior Vice President of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University (in the Washington, DC office), where she was responsible for the Institute’s disability civil rights work. 

Previously, Ms. Hill was the founding Director of the Washington DC Office of Disability Rights, a Cabinet-level DC government agency dedicated to improving access for people with disabilities to government programs and making the District a model of accessibility.  Prior to joining the District, Ms. Hill was Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center in Los Angeles, which advocates for the civil rights of people with disabilities through impact civil rights litigation, special education advocacy, training and technical assistance, mediation, and other methods.  She was also a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, where she taught Disability Rights Law and Special Education Law.  Ms. Hill served on the California State Bar’s Council on Access and Fairness and the American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law, and was Co-Chair of the U.S. Access Board’s Courthouse Accessibility Advisory Committee. 

Ms. Hill is the co-author of a treatise and a casebook on “Disability Civil Rights Law and Policy”.  Ms. Hill has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California School of Law and Loyola Marymount University School of Education.

Ms. Hill started her disability rights work at the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Disability Rights Section, where she implemented the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Mediation Program, supervised the ADA Investigations Unit, and implemented the program for certifying state and local building codes under the ADA.  Ms. Hill was also the Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinator for the Civil Rights Division.  Before joining the Justice Department, Ms. Hill was an associate with the Washington, D.C. firm of Pierson Semmes & Bemis.  Ms. Hill received her J.D. cum laude from Cornell Law School.

Rosemary Kayess

Rosemary Kayess has extensive disability policy experience. She has held ministerial advisory roles with both the state and federal government on disability and carer issues and was the external expert on the Australian Government delegation to the United Nations negotiations for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Rosemary has had extensive research experience working and advising on a variety of social research projects including access to justice, human rights and disability, guardianship, young people in nursing homes.

Her research areas include Access to justice; Human rights and disability; Guardianship; Young people in nursing homes.

Janet E. Lord

Janet E. Lord is an international disability rights lawyer who is currently senior research associate at the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and senior partner at BlueLaw International, LLP, an international law and development firm where she directs the human rights and disability inclusive development practice.

She participated in all of the negotiating sessions during the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, serving as legal advisor to Disabled Peoples’ International, several lead governments and as technical expert to the United Nations. She has designed, managed, and implemented projects addressing disability law and policy in more than 30 countries worldwide.  She consults regularly for a variety of international organizations, including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Disability Programme, UNDP, USAID, the EU, GTZ, the World Bank, CARE, Chemonics International, Disabled Peoples’ International, Handicap International France, and the International Foundation for Election Systems. She has published widely in the area of human rights, international disability law and inclusive development. She is adjunct professor of law at American University, School of International, Service, and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. She holds degrees from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), George Washington University Law School and Kenyon College.

Joanne O’Riordan

Biography to be confirmed

Camilla Parker

Camilla is one of the founding partners of Just Equality – a human rights and equality consultancy based in London, UK. She is a qualified lawyer, with a Masters in Human Rights and Civil Liberties (LLM (with Distinction) 1992) and since 1997 has worked as an independent consultant, specialising in mental health, disability and human rights law and policy. She also works as a consultant for the Open Society Mental Health Initiative. Camilla is a member of the Mental Health and Disability Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales and an LLM tutor at Cardiff University, Wales. She was a Special Adviser to the Joint Committee on Human Rights during its inquiry into the human rights of adults with learning disabilities’ (see A Life Like Any Other? Human Rights of Adults with Learning Disabilities’ 2008).

She is a member of the Advisory Council for the European Coalition for Community Living. Camilla has a particular interest in the human rights of young people in need of mental health care, which is the subject of her (part-time) doctoral research at Cardiff Law School.

Camilla’s publications include: Open Society Foundations, The European Union and the Right to Community Living: Structural Funds and the European Union’s Obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2012 (with Luke Clements) and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Europe Regional Office, Forgotten Europeans – Forgotten Rights: The Human Rights of Persons Placed in Institutions 2011.  

Prof. Gerard Quinn

Gerard Quinn is the Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the NUI Galway School of Law.  Called to the Irish Bar in 1983, he holds a masters (LL.M.) and doctorate in law (S.J.D.) from Harvard Law School. 

His specialization is international and comparative disability law and policy. He is a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission and helps co-ordinate the work of National Human Rights Institutions worldwide on disability issues. He led the delegation of Rehabilitation International (RI) during the UN Working Group that elaborated the basis for the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

He has worked in the European Commission (as a civil servant), and held a number of posts such as Director of Research for the Irish Government’s Law Reform Commission and Vice President of the European Committee of Social Rights (Council of Europe).  He sits on various advisory boards dealing with disability law and policy issues such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, SOROS-OSI (Washington, DC), Disability Rights Fund (Boston, MA), European Foundation Centre Consortium on Disability(Brussels), European Coalition for Community Living (London), Interights (London).

In January 2012 President Michael D. Higgins appointed Professor Quinn to the Republic of Ireland’s Council of State.

Eric Rosenthal

Eric Rosenthal is founder and Executive Director of Disability Rights International. Since establishing Disability Rights International in 1993, Rosenthal has trained human rights and disability activists and provided technical assistance to governments and international development organizations worldwide.  Rosenthal has conducted investigations in more than 25 countries of Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas and published reports on the human rights of people with disabilities in nine countries.

MDRI reports have brought unprecedented worldwide press coverage and attention to the concerns of people with disabilities.  Rosenthal and his work have been profiled in The New York Times Magazine, ABC News 20/20, Good Morning America, and Nightline and has been the subject of main editorials in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, and The Washington Post. Rosenthal has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the US National Council on Disability (NCD).  On behalf of NCD, he co-authored US Foreign Policy and Disability (September 2003), a report that led to legislation to make US foreign assistance accessible to people with disabilities.

Dr. Lucy Series

Biography to be confirmed

David Stanton, T.D.

 David Stanton was first elected as a TD for Cork East Constituency in the general election in 1997. He has served as a TD for the area for the past fifteen years having been re-elected to Dail Eireann in 2002, 2007 & 2011. He has previously held various party spokespersons positions including Disability, Dail Reform and Social and Family Affairs, in addition to junior spokesperson positions in Finance, Agriculture and Education.

Mr. Stanton is currently chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality which has been dealing with a number of very important legislative areas including the proposed Mental Capacity Bill and proposed Personal Insolvency legislation.  The Committee has also been examining criminal justice matters and mediation legislation, missing persons, penal reform and a range of equality and defence issues.

As a TD for Cork East his priorities for the area include:

Youth & children’s facilities, education, childcare and school places

Local infrastructure, transport and community and sports facilities

Local enterprise and employment opportunities

Agriculture and fishing industries

Other areas of special interest to him are:

People with disabilities, older people and carers

Political and local government reform

Máire Whelan SC

Máire R Whelan SC was appointed Attorney General on 9 March 2011.

She studied Political Science in University College Galway with President Michael D. Higgins before turning to the study of law, earning the degrees of B.A. (Hons) in Political Science and LL.B. She completed her Masters degree in law at King's College, London, before her call to the Irish Bar in 1985. She continued her studies   gaining a Diploma in International Relations from the University of Vienna, and at Harvard, where she studied negotiation and conflict management with Professor Roger Fisher.

She was called to the Inner Bar in 2005, by which time she had developed an extensive practice, specializing in Chancery, Probate, Human Rights and Land Law. She is a former advisor to the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas and served as chairperson of the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC). She was the representative of the Bar Council of Ireland on the Board of the Property Registration Authority, and also served as Vice Chairperson of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for Ireland. She is a co-author of National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) Act 2009: A Reference Guide.

Máire grew up in Kinvara, County Galway. She lives in Dublin with her husband, Bernard McCabe, and son, Niall. 

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