Robert Martin wanted a leader who looked and looked like him, and when there was none, he decided to fill the void.
Robert Martin
Photo: Supplied
After spending more than 30 years defending the rights of disabled New Zealanders, Sir Robert has been named a Knight Companion to the New Year’s list of honor.
He has a learning difficulty and spent much of his childhood within institutions and living with foster parents.
Sir Robert said he was proud and humble to receive a gentleman for services to persons with disabilities.
“I could not have gotten where I am without the assistance and support I have received for many years from other people with learning disabilities.”
It was his concern for those around the world who did not yet have a voice that drove him to be a defender.
This impetus led Sir Robert to the United Nations, where in 2018 he became the first person with learning difficulties to chair a meeting during a session.
He was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities during the 2017-2021 term and was seeking re-election.
“In many places in the world, people with learning difficulties are still very invisible …,” he said.
“People with learning disabilities are part of our world, our communities and our societies.”
Sir Robert said he had been defending New Zealanders with disabilities for as long as he could remember, because there was never anyone to do it.
He said that while New Zealand had role models like Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Colin Meads, they were all capable.
Sir Robert wanted a leader who looked and looked like him, and when there was none, he decided to fill the void.
“That’s why I fought nails for people like People First, the only organization in New Zealand that speaks and on behalf of people with learning disabilities.”
New Zealand, he said, had made progress on disability relations and successive governments had tried to hear voices with disabilities.
The Disability Action Plan was a huge milestone, as it had been the brainchild of lawmakers, politicians and at least seven disability groups, Sir Robert said.
But the country still had a long way to go, especially when it came to children with disabilities in the education system.
He said they sometimes ran the risk of falling through the cracks, which was not good enough in 2020.
“Children have a right to education. There is no ‘if there is none.’ There is no ‘but there is none.’
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