Left Behind Again: Disabled Women, the Re-established Executive, and Ongoing Rights Violations in Northern Ireland
Since the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive in February 2024, disabled people, particularly disabled women have continued to experience severe and systemic breaches of our rights. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) has already found the Executive, responsible for grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights, especially those related to independent living (Article 19), social protection (Article 28), employment (Article 27), and the rights of disabled women (Article 6).
Rather than addressing these violations, the Executive has no clear plan to repair the damage caused by years of austerity, welfare reform, and political instability. The continued failure to prioritise disabled people, and disabled women in particular, amounts to a breach of international obligations and undermines the principles of equality, dignity, and participation enshrined in the UNCRPD, the Good Friday Agreement, and Northern Ireland’s equality commitments.
While the return of devolution in 2024 offered a moment of hope, it has not resulted in meaningful progress for disabled people. There is still no dedicated Disability Strategy, no action plan for disability law reform, and no cross-departmental focus on embedding the rights of disabled women. Despite explicit obligations under the UNCRPD, the Executive continues to treat disability equality as a secondary concern, and has failed to recognise the unique and multiple discrimination faced by disabled women.
Disabled women in Northern Ireland are more likely to:
Live in poverty
Live in insecure and inaccessible housing
Experience domestic and sexual violence and exploitation
Be excluded from employment and education
Face significant barriers accessing healthcare and support services
These intersectional risks are rarely acknowledged in policy development, service design, or safeguarding responses despite Article 6 of the UNCRPD, which requires that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the full development, advancement and empowerment of women with disabilities.”
The UN Committee’s 2016 Inquiry found the Executive guilty of grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights, noting that women with disabilities face “disproportionate impact from multiple welfare reforms” and are at higher risk of gender-based violence, isolation, and economic dependency. In its 2023 Concluding Observations, the Committee again raised concern that the Executive has not implemented a targeted strategy to address the situation of disabled women and girls, and that Northern Ireland remain fragmented, underfunded, and inaccessible.
No specific strategy for disabled women exists within the Executive’s Programme for Government, nor have Departments adopted indicators in disability equality monitoring contrary to both international law and domestic equality obligations under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
The failure to implement disability-inclusive anti-poverty measures has had a disproportionate impact on disabled women, many of whom are lone parents or carers. Recent data from the Department for Communities shows that households headed by disabled women are among the most financially insecure, yet no specific interventions have been introduced to support them during the cost-of-living crisis.
At the same time, access to gender-based violence services remain limited and under-funded, and disabled women face significant challenges in accessing accessible emergency and long-term accommodation. This violates Articles 6 and 16 of the UNCRPD (freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse), as well as the Istanbul Convention, which the UK has ratified but failed to fully implement in devolved contexts like Northern Ireland.
Disabled women face a triple bind: lack of accessible childcare, limited part-time work opportunities, and a lack of protection from discrimination. The Executive has not implemented any employment strategy that recognises the distinct labour market barriers faced by disabled women, such as:
Inflexible work environments
Inaccessible recruitment practices
Employer assumptions around productivity or maternity
Lack of affordable, accessible childcare and transport
These structural barriers breach Article 27 and are compounded by the absence of a Single Equality Bill—a long-standing demand of the Equality Commission and disabled and women's organisations across Northern Ireland.
The Executive’s failure to act is not simply a policy oversight—it constitutes a breach of international human rights law. Disabled women in Northern Ireland remain invisible in planning, excluded from decision-making, and underserved by critical systems. The rights violations already highlighted by the UN have not been addressed—and, in some cases, have worsened.
To comply with the UNCRPD and meet the urgent needs of disabled women, the Executive must:
Publish and implement a disability strategy with specific actions for women and girls
Introduce a Single Equality Bill to harmonise protections and prohibit multiple discrimination
Ensure that all anti-poverty and gender-based violence services are inclusive of disabled women
Develop and fund accessible childcare, employment, and transport options
Create formal co-production structures with DPOs and women’s organisations led by disabled women
Until these measures are taken, the Northern Ireland Executive will continue to fail one of the most marginalised groups in society and in doing so, will remain in breach of its international human rights obligations.
Writtern by Nuala Toman, Disability Action