Date: Wednesday 28 October 2026

Time: 13.00 - 14.00

Location: TRiSS seminar room, 6th Floor, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin

School of Social Work and Social Policy Research Seminar with Dinesh Wadiwel on 28 October 2026.

The Elimination of Disability Restraint, Forced Treatment and Seclusion: Notes from the Australian Experience

Abstract

Across a variety of jurisdictions, restraint, forced treatment and seclusion are routinely used within institutional contexts against people with disability. International legal frameworks have increasingly drawn attention to the problems with these practices, including their non compliance with core human rights obligations, such as those articulated in the Convention against Torture. This paper reflects on recent developments within Australian contexts. I will firstly discuss the approach of the Australian Government to regulate and monitor the use of 'restrictive practices' within disability support services. I will then summarise commissioned research I was involved in for the Australian Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, and how it informed the recommendations of the Commission in relation to restraint, forced treatment and seclusion. I will finally reflect on the barriers faced for genuine reform, and the frustrations of advocates seeking to eliminate the use of restrictive practices.

Bio

Dinesh Wadiwel is an Associate Professor in human rights and socio-legal studies at the University of Sydney, with a background in social and political theory. He is author of The War against Animals (Brill 2015) and Animals and Capital (Edinburgh University Press 2023), and co-editor, with Matthew Chrulew, of Foucault and Animals (Leiden: Brill, 2016). Dinesh is also a disability rights researcher and was part of a team who produced two reports for the Australia Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Prior to academia, Dinesh had a background in working in civil society organisations, in anti-poverty and disability rights roles.

 

For further information please email Orla Shortall at OSHORTAL@tcd.ie.