Our aim is to improve outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities in:
We work hard to persuade government, decision-makers and other organisations to change their laws, policies, practices and beliefs so that the rights of people with intellectual disabilities are upheld.
We work to solve issues that affect a large group of people. This is Systemic Advocacy. The sorts of issues this advocacy addresses are often a problem with a system, meaning a lot of people are experiencing the same problem.
Our vision is that New Zealand is a place where people with intellectual disabilities are valued citizens and part of their community.
We work alongside people with lived experience and their families and whānau, disability service providers and communities across the country.
Our work is grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights, and the Disability Action Plan.
IHC undertakes different campaigns that focus on key issues facing people with intellectual disability.
Some of our previous campaigns have been focussed on elections, education, safeguarding citizenship and rights, supported decision-making and quality of life monitoring.
Call IHC Advocacy toll free on 0800 442 442, email: advocacy@ihc.org.nz or find us on Twitter @tania_ihc.
New Zealanders have long life expectancies, but new research from IHC shows that intellectually disabled New Zealanders die up to 20 years earlier than the rest of the population.
This groundbreaking report, From Data to Dignity: Health and Wellbeing Indicators for New Zealanders with Intellectual Disability, reveals people with intellectual disabilities are experiencing poor outcomes in most areas of life. This research is a world first, providing comprehensive quantitative data about people with intellectual disability across many different areas.
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IHC’s report, The Cost of Exclusion: Hardship and People with Intellectual Disability in New Zealand lays bare the depth of poverty experienced by people with intellectual disabilities.
The report shows people with an intellectual disability are twice as likely to live in hardship or severe hardship.
They face significantly higher rates of hardship at every stage of life. Severe hardship rates triple in middle age, even as they decline for the rest of the population.
Living with disability comes at a real cost, one that’s falling on individuals and families who are often excluded from work, transport and even food.
We believe all students with a disability have a human right to attend their local school, feel welcome and included, have access to the curriculum, and have fair outcomes from a quality education. Unfortunately, students with disabilities have been treated unfairly within the New Zealand education system for far too long. They have been discriminated against by not having access to what they need to thrive at school. In 2008, after decades of work with the Ministry of Education to solve the problems, IHC lodged a complaint under the Human Rights Act 1993. We are still waiting for our day in court, but we continue to push forward.
IHC recommends that he Plain Language Act Repeal Bill be voted down and strengthened to have meaningful impact on increasing the accessibility of government documents.
IHC says a fair, consistent and transparent disability support system must be guided by data, person-centred principles and real-world experiences.
IHC supports the Mental Health Act Bill’s shift to include supported decision making and the concept of capacity, with a clear presumption that individuals have the capacity to make decisions about mental health care unless they demonstrably cannot, however we must ensure that disability is not used as a basis to assume a lack of capacity to make mental health decisions.
A new IHC report reveals that New Zealanders with an intellectual disability are twice as likely to live in hardship or severe hardship compared to the rest of the population.
IHC is encouraged by the Government’s commitment to learning support with a promised injection of $644 million announced by Finance Minister, Nicola Willis in today’s Budget.
Repealing the Plain Language Act 2022 would mark a major step backwards for people with intellectual disability to easily access important information, says IHC.
IHC National Office
Level 15, 57 Willis Street
Wellington
9am to 5pm
Monday to Friday
