Summer School 2019
11th International Disability Law Summer School
Persons with Disabilities and the Right to Family Life
17-21 June 2019, ILAS, NUI Galway
The 11th International Disability Law Summer School is now over, but most of the sessions can be viewed on our YouTube channel. All documents from the Summer School, including a transcript, can be found on Dropbox. Photos of the event can be viewed and downloaded from Dropbox also.
About the School
The world’s largest Disability Law Summer School focusing on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities took place in NUI Galway from 17-21 June. This was the 11th International Disability Law Summer School to be hosted by the University’s Centre for Disability Law and Policy. The overall theme of this year’s Summer School was ‘Persons with Disabilities and the Right to Family Life’.
The right to family life of persons with disabilities includes, but is not limited to, the right to form a family, the right to reproductive autonomy, the right to marry and enter civil partnerships, the right to privacy, the right of disabled children not to be separated from their families, the rights of persons with disabilities as parents, the right to information about one’s biological family, the right to choose where and with whom to live on an equal basis with others, and the right to liberty.
The 11th International Disability Law Summer School explored creative advocacy to advance the right to family life from around the world, informed by the experiences of front-line advocates from social movements, academia, NGOs, policymakers and other stakeholders with different forms of expertise. The course spurred participants to think in a more inclusive way about the identities and contexts of constituencies who face barriers in exercising their right to family life and how we would ensure protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, not just in terms of antidiscrimination measures, but also in terms of policies that promote human rights across a range of different environments and contexts.
210 delegates from over 50 countries took part in this year’s Summer School, including persons with disabilities, civil society groups, as well as disability activists, feminist activists, older people’s advocates, children’s rights activists, lawyers, policy makers and policy analysts. The speakers included academics, practitioners, activists, members of different UN agencies and policy makers from around the world. Many of the speakers were directly and actively engaged in drafting and implementing the UN Convention. Freyja Haraldsdóttir from TABU, Iceland gave the keynote address at the Summer School.
The full programme can be downloaded here: DSS Programme 2019DSS Programme 2018
