Donal Toolan is Director of the Forum of People with Disabilities, an Actor and Broadcast Journalist whose life experiences has informed his involvement with groups interested in the progression of human rights instruments and approaches as a necessary counter to those who favour the growing diminuation the role of law in democratic societies. A founder of the Forum of people with Disabilities in 1990, he was involved in negeoiating with Government the establishment of a Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities published in 2006 and played a central role in the recent debate to progress socio-economic rights for disabled people in Ireland as recommended in that report. He has served as a member of the executive of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, a member of the Democracy Commission and the Information Society Commission and is currently a board member of the European Anti Poverty Network and International Service (Ireland).  For his contribution to a documentary series, reflecting the realities of disabled peoples lives in Ireland, he was was awarded National Broadcast Journalist of the Year in 1993 and has published, broadcast and written across a broad range of media.