Concluding observations by the UN CEDAW Committee
Last month, Ireland was examined under the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW). On the 20th of June, members of the Irish civil service and government engaged in a dialogue with the CEDAW committee addressing key issues affecting women in Ireland including representation, gender-based violence and historic rights violations.
Following this dialogue, the CEDAW Committee then released their Concluding Observations, which are the committee’s feedback to the Irish State.
Ahead of this examination, civil society organisations were invited to submit alternative or shadow reports, which give our independent perspective on how well Ireland is meeting its obligations under the UN CEDAW.
Disabled Women Ireland submitted an alternative report. Our report focused on four key areas:
Gender Based Violence
Healthcare and Sexual and Reproductive Health
Parenting as a Disabled Person
Poverty and Social Exclusion.
We also emphasised that Ireland tends to be “policy-rich but implementation-poor,” where disabled women are frequently overlooked — falling between the cracks of both disability and gender-focused policies. We also highlighted the lack of disaggregated data on disability and gender in the Irish context, which makes it much more difficult for organisations like DWI to identify challenges, and to monitor Ireland’s progress in addressing these challenges.
Earlier this week, the UN CEDAW released its Concluding Observations for Ireland and in relation to these topics the committee made the following recommendations related to these areas:
Gender based violence
Raise awareness, especially among marginalized groups of women, of legislation prohibiting gender-based violence and of the remedies available to victims, provide mandatory and culturally sensitive training for judges, prosecutors and the police on proper identification, investigation and prosecution of cases of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, and ensure access to specialized legal aid, support services and protection orders for all women victims, with a particular focus on marginalized groups, such as Traveller, Roma, migrant and LBTI women, and women with disabilities; (Rec 28b)
Strengthen the resources and data collection capacity of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency and ensure its cooperation with survivor organizations; (Rec 28c)
Health
Establish a monitoring mechanism to prevent, detect and punish forced sterilisation, coercive abortion and non-consensual infertility treatment in the State party, with particular attention to women with disabilities and Roma women (Rec 26f)
Ensure universal access to health services with specific measures for Traveller, Roma, migrant and rural women, and women with disabilities, and ensure their inclusion in the digital health transformation under the Digital Health & Social Care Strategic Roadmap (2024-2030) (Rec 40a)
Expand the Free Contraception Scheme to include women at all ages and marginalised groups of women and ensure culturally sensitive sexual and reproductive health services for all women, including rural women, women with disabilities and migrant women; (Rec 40b)
Explicitly criminalize forced sterilization of women with disabilities and Roma women and ensure that sterilizations can only be performed with their free, prior and informed consent; (Rec 40e)
Integrate gender-sensitive, community-based mental health services into public health services, with special support for women and girl victims of gender-based violence and trafficking, and for women with psychosocial disabilities. (Rec 40g)
Poverty and social exclusion
Strengthen support programmes for women entrepreneurs, including targeted measures to ensure the participation of women from disadvantaged groups, particularly rural women, women with disabilities, Roma, Traveller and migrant women, and ethnic minority women; (Rec 44a)
Parenting as a disabled person
Undertake systematic evaluation and adopt measures to address discrimination against women with disabilities in child custody decisions; (Rec 56e)
Data collection
Ensure that such disaggregated data is collected with appropriate safeguards for privacy and confidentiality, in consultation with representatives of marginalized groups, particularly rural, Traveller, Roma and migrant women's organizations and organizations representing women with disabilities; (Rec 58b)
Specific Measures Regarding Disabled Women (Rec 46) :
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Ensure the exercise of all human rights of women with disabilities through a comprehensive strategy that addresses all areas covered by the Convention;
(b) Ensure that women with disabilities have effective access to justice and legal aid through the provision of disability-sensitive services, reasonable accommodations and procedural adjustments in accordance with the Committee's general recommendation No. 33 (2015) on women's access to justice;
(c) Provide mandatory training on the rights of women with disabilities to all personnel in the justice system;
(d) Establish comprehensive reparations for women and girls with disabilities survivors of institutional abuse and harmful practices, such as forced sterilisation and coercive abortion, that are consistent with international standards and explicitly recognize moral and transgenerational harm.
Submissions to the United Nations on CEDAW and CRPD
(29th June 2025)
Disabled Women Ireland (DWI) has recently made submissions to the United Nations under two key human rights treaties: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
UN Cedaw
Both CEDAW and CRPD are international agreements that Ireland has signed up to. They require countries to protect and promote the rights of women and disabled people. Every few years, Ireland is reviewed by UN committees to see how well it performs relative to the treaties—and groups like DWI can send in reports to highlight problems and share real-life experiences.
As part of the most recent review of Ireland under CEDAW, DWI submitted an alternative report with NeuroPride Ireland focusing on the specific experiences of disabled women and gender minorities. Our submission highlighted concerns in three core areas:
Gender-based violence
Parenting and family life
Poverty and social exclusion
We were also invited to take part in a private virtual briefing with members of the UN CEDAW Committee ahead of the State’s appearance for review.
UN CRPD
In parallel, we also submitted a List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR) to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This detailed report highlighted gaps across 15 different articles of the Convention.
As a member of the DPO Network, we also contributed to the joint LOIPR submission coordinated by the Network. That report can be found on the DPO Network’s website.