Memorandum submitted by Mencap in Northern
Ireland
COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT CRIMINAL JUSTICE (NI)
ORDER
1. ABOUT MENCAP
1.1 Mencap is a voluntary organisation which
provides information and advice and a range of direct services
for people with a learning disability. We support a membership
network of over 70 local groups and Clubs. We campaign alongside
people with a learning disability and their families and carers
for an equal right to choice, opportunity and respect.
2. ABOUT LEARNING
DISABILITY
2.1 It is estimated that 2% of the population—or
33,000 people in Northern Ireland—has a learning disability.
Learning disability is a lifelong disability acquired before or
soon after birth that limits intellectual capacity. People with
a learning disability are likely to have difficulties with communication
and understanding.
2.2 People with a learning disability have
traditionally been either institutionalised or separated from
the wider community or continued to live with their families well
into adulthood,
2.3 People with a learning disability are
members of their local communities. The services they rely on
and use, however, such as schools, day centres, leisure clubs
etc may be located many miles outside their local community. This
can make it extremely difficult for people with a learning disability
to feel included and part of their local community.
2.4 In addition, people with a learning
disability experience prejudice and widespread discrimination
that often makes them feel outcasts and prevents them from taking
a full part in society.
3. HATE CRIME
"I was standing at the bus stop and for no reason
people would come up to me and call me names, kick me and push
me . . ." (male, 46, Londonderry. Living in Fear, Mencap
1999)
3.1 A survey carried out by Mencap in 1999
found that a substantial number of people with a learning disability
are experiencing verbal or physical abuse—many on a daily
or weekly basis.
Our survey, which included focus groups from
Northern Ireland, found that nearly nine out of 10 respondents
experienced bullying in the previous year. Two-thirds were bullied
on a regular basis and almost one-third were bullied on a daily
or weekly basis. Bullying was identified by people with a learning
disability in the survey as "kicking, biting, name-calling,
teasing, stealing, pushing, threatening, having things thrown
at you, being told to leave a building, hitting, being shouted
at, swearing, demanding money, hair-pulling, throwing stones,
spitting, poking, being punched, being beaten up, having one's
head banged against the wall"
3.2 Name calling or verbal abuse was identified
as the most common type of bullying experienced by people with
a learning disability. Names related to a person's disability
were common. Almost a quarter of people who took part in our survey
said that they had been physically assaulted.
People with a learning disability were often
bullied in public places, such as in the street and when waiting
at bus stops, often targeted as lone individuals by groups of
people they do not know.
3.3 A significant number of people with
a learning disability said in the survey that they had been harassed
in their own neighbourhoods, many by neighbours and strangers
as well as by local children and young people. People often said
that their response to the bullying was either to move house or
try to address the problem themselves rather than ask for outside
assistance, because of the fear of retaliation.
3.4 Our survey found that in a quarter of
cases, people with a learning disability were having to cope with
bullying so long that they saw it as a distressing, but inevitable,
part of their everyday life.
3.5 At the Mencap in Northern Ireland conference
on human rights, held in October 2001 and attended by over 200
delegates, a number of people with a learning disability drew
attention to the issue of bullying and spoke about their experiences
of being bullied and harassed. During the conference people with
a learning disability had the opportunity to identify the rights
that were important to them. Included on the list of rights were
"the right to feel safe" and "the right not to
be bullied".
4. BARRIERS TO
JUSTICE
4.1 Research by Mencap, entitled Barriers
to Justice, highlighted the fact that people with a learning disability
are disadvantaged when using, or coming into contact with, the
legal system because of the complexity of the processes involved,
because individuals are not aware of their rights and because
they may not be treated as "competent"" or "credible"
witnesses.
4.2 Despite the high levels of harassment,
including assault, experienced by people with a learning disability
very few people who commit offences against people with a learning
disability are brought to justice. There is little statistical
recording by the police of the locations, numbers or severity
of incidents.
4.3 Many people with a learning disability
do not know who to tell when they have been a victim of crime
or experienced bullying or harassment. Some may tell someone in
authority, like a member of staff at a day centre, and may expect
others to report the incident or crime.
Where incidents are reported, difficulties remain
with taking cases to court because of the lack of support available
to people with a learning disability to enable them to give evidence
and because of assumptions made about their being a credible witness.
5. INCLUSION
OF DISABILITY
5.1 We believe that the Criminal Justice
Order should include disability within its remit. A failure to
do so, we believe, would mean that people with a disability would
not experience equality of opportunity, as required by Section
75 of the Northern Ireland Act.
We believe, too, that a failure to include disability
within the remit of the Criminal Justice Order would mean that
people with a disability living in Northern Ireland would not
have the same protection as that afforded by the Government through
its amendment to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and would disadvantage
people who live in Northern Ireland.
5.2 We believe, too, that challenging the
prejudice and discrimination experienced by people with a learning
disability is essential if we are to create a more diverse and
inclusive society in Northern Ireland and if people with a learning
disability are to be allowed to live their lives without fear.
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