By Gordon Simpson 

CHAMPION of disabled rights Rachel Hurst, of Hullavington, has been recognised for her work with a CBE Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a grade in the Order of the British Empire  in the New Year Honours List.

The 68-year-old director of Disability Awareness in Action was previously awarded an OBE in 1995 and received her latest honour for services to disabled people.Ms Hurst and a group of other volunteers set up DAA in 1992, with the support of various government funding.

She described it as an international disability and human rights information network, which works with disabled people in 164 countries.Ms Hurst, who herself is disabled and requires an electric wheelchair, said she was delighted with the award, but viewed it as more than a personal achievement.

I was very pleased and very honoured, but I feel it is not a personal gift, she said.The honour is really to the disability movement and disabled people throughout the world. I don’t think I should be honoured as an individual for the work I do, so I am receiving it on behalf of disabled people everywhere.

She said the work of groups such as the DAA was vital, but more still needed to be done to help disabled people across the globe.

I think a lot of things have happened, which have made a lot of difference, particularly this last year with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, she said.We were quite heavily involved with the government in trying to get that through. There has been an enormous lot of progress and great things are happening, but the actual reality for the individual on the ground is that not a lot has changed. The High Street shop is still not accessible and so on. Its lovely listening to governments saying nice things, but we have got to get them to do it.

Latest information from the Mission of Republic of Serbia at UN – Ceremonial of signing the UN CRPD and Optional Protocol on behalf of Serbian state is appointed for Monday, 17th of December, at noon – New York time (6 p.m. Serbian time) within the Office of Department for Legal Affairs in UN. 

From Serbian side this Ceremonial will attend Mr. Vladimir Pesic from Sector for PWDs in Ministry for Labor and Social Policy and Mr. Damjan Tatic, UNDP expert for legal aspects for PWDs in Serbia.

Team of Handicap International in the Middle-East organise the workshop “DPO engagement in difficult environments, crisis and transition” in Cairo from December 14^th to 16^th 2007.

Issues that will be discussed on the workshop will be:

Should DPOs provide services when states fail to do so? What kind of service to prioritize to ensure inclusion and Independent living in difficult environment? Role of DPOs in service delivery 

Making disability matter, when it doesn’t. Role of DPOs in changing representation of disability Evidence based advocacy. 

Advocacy for more and better policy in “limited” democracy: Role of disability in the change of legislationMaking the state pay 

Strengthening the disability movement  and alliance with Ngos: Exchange between DPOs from Middle East, North Africa, Balkans  

Supporting the disability movement:  Exchange between HI, SHIA, and others NGOs 

Representatives from Bosnia (IC LOTOS), Makedonia (Polio+) and Serbia (Center for Independent Living and Association of Students with Disabilities) will take part in this workshop.

D.P.I. Italia ONLUS  is organising international seminar on “Women, Disability and Health.  Reflections on Violence and the Safeguarding of Human Rights”, 14^th , 15^th  and 16^th December 2007 in Salerno 

D.P.I. Italia ONLUS, in its years of activity, dedicated particular attention to themes of gender in the area of the disability world.  Women with disability live in a condition of multiple discrimination: in fact to the discrimination of being persons with disability we must add  the one deriving from the gender they belong to.  Moreover, we must add a general lack of data on women with disability and the total absence of research and knowledge on issues that regard them and that can produce a real and concrete strategy to confront and solve the problems that they are faced with.  Often, therefore, women and young women with disability are invisible citizens in the mainstreaming policies in so  much as they are not even considered in policies and actions actuated both in favour of women as well as persons with disability.  

AGENDA

FRIDAY 14th DECEMBER

Registration

FIRST SESSION – Gender and Disability from an ethical perspective

SECOND SESSION – Knowing, learning changing: which forms of violence in public health systems

Daphne Programme: which opportunities for women with disability in Europe

Which future commitments in favour of women with disability in Italy

SATURDAY 15th DECEMBER 

THIRD SESSION – An open space for active participation: WHICH ALLIANCES AMONG WOMEN TO BUILD POLICIES FOR HEALTH?

SUNDAY 16th DECEMBER

FOURTH SESSION – PROGRAMMED INTERVENTIONS

Handicap International and High School Libre from Brussels and Prigogine organising lecture on adaptation of living environment and working therapist as a profession on Saturday, 8^th of December 2007, from 9.00 until 16.30h in Zemun High School of Medicine.Working therapists are experts in rehabilitation which follow lives of persons with disabilities and help them to enlarge their participation in community living, to achieve higher level of independency in everyday life and activities. They are working with persons with disabilities with aim to improve their environment (physical and social) and help them to be included in community life.

Within the Program – Contact Organisations from the Civil Society, Group 484 is organising Round table „Sustainable Development and Vulnerable Social Groups” on 6th of December in Belgrade.

The aims of this Round table are:(1) presentation of Strategy of Sustainable Development of Republic of Serbia;(2) discussion on place and importance that vulnerable social groups (refugees, women, persons with disabilities, youth, Roma and elderly) have got within the Strategy(3) researching the possibilities that this Strategy become more useful related to vulnerable groups.

Realisation of this Strategy, implements Office of Vice-president of Serbian Parliament, supported by UNDP and SIDA with aim to create the frame for Serbian development until 2017. This Strategy will enable Serbia to get clear picture how to adjust  economic prosperity, social issues and protection of living enviroment.

For Contact organisation that represents persons with disabilities in this projecdt (Center for Independent Living Serbia) this Round table will attend: Borivoje Ljubinkovic and Ivana Janicijevic, Center for Independent Living Serbia, Dimitrije Gligorijevic, CIL branch Jagodina, Katica Randjelovic, CIL branch Nis, Julijana Catalinac, CIL branch Sombor, Vesna Bogdanovic, Center for Inclusive Society Belgrade, Mihajlo Pajevic, Union of Para and Quadriplegics Belgrade and Tihomir Nikolic, Organisation of Blind Belgrade.

Statement of the European Coalition for Community Living European Day of People with Disabilities 2007ust Be Made a Priority

As we mark the European Day of People with Disabilities, the European Coalition forCommunity Living (ECCL) calls on the Member States to take concrete steps to end theinstitutionalisation of people with disabilities by developing alternative services in theirlocal communities. While there has been much progress in promoting equal citizenship forpeople with disabilities in Europe, thousands still live in long-stay residential institutions,isolated from their communities and from the rest of society. Large institutions for peoplewith disabilities are not limited to Europe’s new Member States; they also exist in most ofthe ‘older Member States’. For these people, the concepts of equal opportunities, socialinclusion and respect for human rights are meaningless.Across the European Union, many Member States have adopted policies that promote the socialinclusion of people with disabilities through the closure of institutions and the provision ofcommunity-based services, including those controlled by disabled people. However, contrary tothe European Union’s Disability Action Plan 2006 — 2007¹ and the recently adopted UNConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, new institutions for people withdisabilities continue to be built in the European Union today.This year’s European Day of People with Disabilities conference, held in Brussels on 5 — 6December, focuses on people with disabilities as active players in the Internal Market. It is anopportunity to promote the free movement of people with disabilities and their access toquality social services, as well as other services of general interest. In order to achieve a trulyinclusive society in which people with disabilities have the freedom of movement and theopportunity to contribute to society as everyone else, they must have access to appropriateservices and support in their own local communities. Relevant regulations and policies shouldtherefore be revised so that they promote the development of community-based services moreeffectively². Such services and support must be developed as a matter of priority, using forexample, the EU’s regional structural funding mechanism. Moreover, if people with disabilitiesare to benefit from Europe’s human rights and social inclusion policies, the EuropeanCommission and individual Member States must commit to stop building new institutions forpeople with disabilities, to adopting a specific non-discrimination directive for people withdisabilities and to ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

_______________________________________________________

The European Coalition for Community Living (ECCL) is a cross disability initiative which workstowards the social inclusion of people with disabilities by promoting the provision of comprehensive,quality community-based services as an alternative to institutionalisation. ECCL’s visionis of a society in which people with disabilities live as equal citizens, with full respect for theirhuman rights. They must have real choices regarding where and with whom to live, choices intheir daily lives and real opportunities to be independent and to actively participate in theircommunities. To this end, ECCL advocates for and monitors progress towards de-institutionalisation inEurope, campaigns for, and provides information on, the development of comprehensive, qualitycommunity-based services and de-institutionalisation. The founding organisations of ECCLare Autism Europe, the Center for Policy Studies of the Central European University, the EuropeanDisability Forum, the European Network on Independent Living, Inclusion Europe, MentalHealth Europe and the Open Society Mental Health Initiative.

Center for Independent Living Serbia was called to join in creating additional program for Film Festival „Right to Differences“ dedicated to persons with disabilities.

According to that CIL documentary The Idea whose time has come filmed during the project PASS. The documentary will be presented within the part The Choice for Persons with Disabilities in Yugoslav Film Archive on 2nd of December.  

The whole program lasted from 27th November until 4rd December and is aimed to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. There will be presented popular international movies and national short meter and documentaries presented disability issues.

On initiative of MP Gordana Rajkov, Board for Labor and Social Policy within the National Assembly Serbia will host the Celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. 

Observation of this Day is organised in cooperation with United Nation Development Program and will be organised in form of Round table on 3rd of December 2007 at 12.00 a.m. in premise of National Assembly building, Belgrade. 

The topic of this International Day is Decent work for Persons with Disabilities and this Day will be marke din Serbian Assembly through public discussion on the Draft of the Law on Employment if Persons with Disabilities. 

Celebrating 3rd of December Nacional Umbrella Organisation will organise Round Table 4th of December in New Belgrade Municipality at 1 p.m. That will be the opportunity to publicly present the “ National Disability Report of Serbia – An Analysis of Legislation and Practice in Serbia“, which was done under the EDF CARDS Project with cooperation of all organisations of PWDs in Serbia. 

The aim of this report is to give analyse of law regulative in disability area and to point to regulations and practice which are in accordance to UN Convention on Rights of PWDs. This report also consisted from recommendations how to adope new and change existing regulations.

Participants of this Round table will be informed on results of this project and this report in area of education, employment and social protection of PWDs.

There will be representatives from State institutions, national and international NGOs, representatives of DPOs.