Joint EUD – IDS Seminar 2013

This year’s EUD seminar was co-hosted and organised by EUD member IDS, the Irish Deaf Society. The theme ‘Deaf citizens in the EU – what are our rights?’ was chosen to reflect the European Year of Citizens 2013, which can be seen as a precursor to the European Parliament elections taking place in 2014. The joint seminar was held in Dublin, Ireland and focussed on various levels of citizenship, including political participation at both EU and local level.

MEPs Dr Ádám Kósa and Emer Costello set the scene by introducing European citizenship as enshrined in the Treaties and leading to the recognition of sign languages. Deaf scholar John Bosco Conama gave an academic account of citizenship while Professor Quinn explained the uniqueness of the UNCRPD in many dimensions.

EUD Executive Director Mark Wheatley rounded the seminar off by giving detailed information and statistics about the recent EUD UNCRPD survey regarding the implementation of the Convention in the EUD Member States.

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