The Senate Community Affairs References Committee has today tabled the report of its inquiry into involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia. The Committee has made wide-ranging findings, including recommendations to strengthen the law and better educate medical practitioners, courts, people with a disability and their families about their rights and responsibilities 

“This has been a very important Inquiry for the members of the Committee, we undertook extensive consultation and deliberation in order to produce a report and a set of recommendations that will offer the support and security that people with disabilities, families, carers and medical practitioners expect,” Committee Chair Senator Rachel Siewert said today. 

“This is a very personal and emotional issue, we are particularly grateful to those people across the community who made submissions, attended hearings and took part in this discussion, including many women with disability who were prepared to talk to the committee about their personal experiences. 

“The Committee has made 28 recommendations that attempt to address the broad range of issues and concerns that we have examined over the last nine months. “This is a deeply personal matter for many individuals and their families, but ultimately, the human rights implications of undertaking an operation against an individual’s free will are clear.

When a person with a disability has the capacity to consent, either on their own or with appropriate support, sterilisation should be banned unless they give that consent. This includes those people with a disability who may develop the capacity to consent in the future.  As the inquiry report states; “State and Territory legislation needs to be improved to explicitly state that it is presumed that persons with disabilities have the capacity to make their own decisions unless objectively assessed otherwise.

“The Committee has made a range of recommendations regarding court support, including Legal Aid and Family Courts, underpinned by our recommendation that each jurisdiction enact legislation prohibiting the performance or procurement of unauthorised sterilisation procedures. State and Territory legislation should also make it an offence to take, attempt to take, or to knowingly assist a person to take, a child or an adult with a disability overseas for the purpose of obtaining a sterilisation procedure.“

It is clear to the committee that this is a complex issue where the lines between therapeutic and non-therapeutic operations have been increasingly blurred and that there are a number of procedures taking place each year without adequate scrutiny.

“The committee has also recommended a range of measures to ensure that the sexual and reproductive health needs of people with a disability are discussed openly and planned for rather than ignored, including through the development of personal plans under the NDIS.

Committee member, Queensland Senator, Sue Boyce, said; “I am very pleased that the committee approached its inquiry from the perspective that people with a disability are entitled to seek loving relationships just like everyone else and to express their sexuality, just like everyone else.

“The implementation of education, training and community awareness about independent decision making and the right to bodily integrity should significantly improve life for people with a disability, especially with improved community understanding, awareness, and acceptance of the right of the disabled to their sexuality.”

Senator Sue Boyce said.The Committee has also extended its terms of references to include the impact of forced sterilisation on people who are born intersex. This component of the inquiry is still being undertaken, and the Committee’s report on intersex issues will be released in the near future. “

I encourage all MPs and people across the community to read this report and I look forward to the Government’s response,” Senator Siewert concluded.

http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate_committees?url=clac_ctte/involuntary_sterilisation/index.htm

The Zero Project´s mission is to promote the rights of persons with disabilities. Its main activity is to research the most Innovative Practices and Innovative Policies that advance the implementation of the UN CRPD, and to present them in the Zero Project Report, on its website (www.zeroproject.org) and at the Zero Project Conference. The theme of next year’s conference is going to be Accessibility as a human right: Innovative Policies and Innovative Practices, since no one can enjoy a human right to which one does not have access. You are invited to nominate one, or more, “Innovative Policy” and/or “Innovative Practice” that has clearly improved accessibility for persons with disabilities. Nomination forms, including guidelines, are available in seven languages at http://www.zeroproject.org/about/nominations/. The deadline to submit nominations is July 29, 2013.

Within the EIDHR project, Establishing the regional Balkan network of DPOs, two focus groups were organised and held. One in area of education for PWDs in Novi Sad on 19 of June facilitated by Milica Ruzicic Novkovic. Other one in area of health protection of PWDs in Nis on 25 of Jund facilitated by Lepojka Carevic Mitanovski.

Two facilitators got very qualitative answer who will contributed to their analyses which should show the compliance of domestic legislation with CRPD.

Konacno, 22.maja 2013.  stupile  na snagu odredbe cetiri nova podzakonska akata – pravilnika koji detaljnije regulisu oblast socijalne zastite:

• Pravilnik o bližim uslovima i standardima za pružanje usluga socijalne zaštite
• Pravilnik o licenciranju stručnih radnika u socijalnoj zaštiti
• Pravilnik o licenciranju organizacija socijalne zaštite
• Pravilnik o izmenama i dopunama Pravilnika o stručnim poslovima u socijalnoj zaštiti
• Pravilnik o bližim uslovima i standardima za pružanje usluga socijalne zaštite propisuje minimalne strukturalne i funkcionalne standarde koje moraju da ispune svi pružaoci usluga

Ispunjenost standarda kvaliteta usluge predstavlja jedan od uslova za dobijanje licence. Pravilnicima o licenciranju stručnih radnika i organizacija socijalne zaštite propisuju se bliži uslovi za izdavanje i obnavljanje licence, odnosno suspenziju i oduzimanje licence. 

Pravilnici se mogu naci  na  http://www.zavodsz.gov.rs/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=397&Itemid=115  

At May 22nd new By laws were adopted. Those By laws regulated more detailed the area of social protection.

They could be found on

http://www.zavodsz.gov.rs/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=397&Itemid=115 

on Serbian language for now.

On May 30th UNICEF is launching its flagship publication State of the World’s Children (SOWC) this year dedicated to Children with Disabilities. With this report, UNICEF hopes to add a strong voice and increased visibility to the global, necessary and increasingly urgent debate about disability rights, especially those of children. State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with Disabilities focuses on the position of children with disabilities in a varying worldwide landscape. The publication will be available at www.unicef.org/sowc

A public debate on the third draft of the Law on Personal Assistance for people with disabilities in Slovenia finished at the end of February 2013. With adoption of the Law the Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs is trying to meet the requirements as set out in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.T

he first draft of the Law on Personal Assistance was produced and put into the public sphere for discussion in 2010. However, this draft never got to the decision makers. Last year, a new proposal was submitted to the legislative procedure by YHD – Association for Theory and Culture of Handicap. Again, the proposal was rejected. In this draft of the proposal the main focus of the criticism centered on the vague financial structure outlined. Because of the amount of work that was put into preparing the draft, together with more than 10 years practical experience in implementing Personal Assistance, users of Personal Assistance and members of YHD were really disappointed when the third and currently final proposal came from the Ministry again in December last year.

It appears that the dissatisfaction is only intensifying as the new proposal that the Ministry prepared has no real concept.According to the advocate of the principle of equality, the draft prepared by YHD is considered as a form of civil initiative proposal and also pointed out that it is very important that the Law on Personal Assistance is adopted as soon as possible to prevent and eliminate discrimination on the grounds of disability and to start implementing and respecting the ratified UN CRPD.

He went on to further say that the legal basis for the implementation of Personal Assistance in Slovenia already exists- according to article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was ratified five years ago. Contained in the UN CRPD is the right to the organization of community based services and one of the services which aims to provide better integration of disabled people in the society, is Personal Assistance. The advocate of the principle of equality therefore believes that the Law on Personal Assistance is not creating a new right but is only formalizing the existing ones according to the UNCRPD.Furthermore the right to independent living can also be found in the Slovenian constitution, for example, through the interpretation of non-discrimination provisions and provisions for the protection of human rights and human dignity.

YHD is now trying to explain to the Ministry that they did not comply with the established good practices that already exist in Slovenia when preparing the third draft. They are also trying to explain that the draft proposal reflects the lack of knowledge of disability issues, and what is even more important is that the draft is discriminatory because it is excluding people with mental health problems and people with intellectual disabilities which can not be justified nor accepted.

April 19, 2013

This year’s Global Action Week of the campaign, 21-27 April, puts the spotlight on the importance of well-trained teachers.

In total, 132 million children are out of primary and lower secondary school. One third of all children who do not attend primary school are children with disabilities. No access to school means that these children won’t have a chance to learn, won’t be able to get decent work when they grow up or live a healthy and independent life.

ENIL are honoured to induct Gordana Rajkov from Belgrade, Serbia into the ENIL Hall of Fame. Gordana has been a disability activist and a Leader in the Independent Living Movement for a number of years. Gordana is the founder of the Center for Independent Living in Serbia and has also been a member of the Parliament in Serbia.

Could you tell me a little about your background?

I grew up in Belgrade in Serbia, finished elementary school there and went onto study mathematics at University. That is my professional educational background. I taught children mathematics and did this for ten years, then I started to become more involved with organisation for people with disabilities. I became President of the Muscular Dystrophy Alliance of Former Yugoslavia. With this organisation I did a lot of advocacy work trying to lobby for measures to protect and advocate for Human Rights. I also worked with Oxfam for seven years as a Regional Disability Advisor and travelled to Bosnia and Macedonia. There was a social approach to disability at the time.

How did you become involved in the Independent Living Movement?

I had quite an ordinary childhood, which was marked by a good education.  My parents died when I was 17 years old. At that age I stayed on my own in the house. At that time in Serbia there were not many institutions for people with disabilities and at that time I did not use the wheelchair so I stayed in my own home. I had to learn the skills needed to survive. l had to make life decisions – decide who was going to help me with different things which was not an easy task at all. I liken it to passing through a market, whatever I got I had to pay for each thing I wanted to have. This created a person who deeply believed in Independent Living principles, every person including persons with disabilities has the right to decide about his or her own life and make decisions for him/herself and take the responsibility for this.

Many people with disabilities in Serbia forget this, as they are not used to making decisions so don’t take the responsibility, you must be aware you are responsible for decision making in your own life.At that time I was living by Independent Living principles without knowing that they were Independent Living principles. The first time I got the idea of the concept of Independent Living I found an article written by Adolf Ratzka, written at the time when things were beginning to develop in Europe.

With my involvement in the Muscular Dystrophy Alliance of Former Yugoslavia and promoting human rights on a European Level, I came in contact with people in Ireland and came to Dublin in 1992. The Center for Independent Living Dublin had just started there and they were beginning a Personal Assistance scheme.This is the first time I learned of political aspects of Independent Living. The first time I met with the concept of personal assistance and what it means. I spent three years in Dublin. I learned a lot and tried to give all of the experience I gained in my life. I started working on projects with CIL Dublin. One of the projects I liked very much was called ‘Getting Out’. This was a great project and this idea came from Martin Naughton. The project was to find people with disabilities in institutions that were interested in Independent Living and living an independent life, and role out for them a programme to help support them find a place to live, rent a home and work with them getting into an independent living way of life.

It was a great experience working with CIL Dublin trying to preserve the rights of Independent Living and fight for them. At one time, a delegation of people with disabilities and their supporters stayed outside Irish Government Buildings to talk with the members of parliament about the rights of people with disabilities for two nights and I believe the same thing happened again in Ireland last year. I saw the real possibility of the philosophy of Independent Living and try to teach from my experience how to make decisions related to Independent Living and also be aware of the challenges of Independent Living.It was a good time in Ireland at that time, there was buzz around Adolf Ratzka in the USA were there was good policies being put in place. At this time, I knew that Independent Living and Personal Assistance meant something and it was something I wanted to fight for in my own country.

There was also a project in NUI Maynooth for young people with disabilities on the history of the Independent Living movement. In 1995 we held a symposium on disability which would become known as ‘from the tent to the castle’ with contacts from across Europe and the United States attending. The conference was to take place in Jury’s Hotel but they were renovating the main room where the conference was to be  held and it was too late to organise another venue. The hotel put in a huge tent. There was great discussion from many of the Independent Living Leaders, from John Evans and Adolf Ratzka and many others. We also met with some Members of the Irish Parliament. We achieved a victory showing what Independent Living could be. These are some of my greatest memories from Ireland. This influenced me and when I went back to Serbia I set up CIL Serbia in 1996. Since then we have developed a number of CILs in Serbia, one of the most relevant advocacy organisations in Serbia thanks to the experience with my Irish friends in those three years.

What do you think was the most significant moment of Independent Living Movement?

If we take Berkeley and that great history out of the equation, there are two moments and both of them are related to Strasbourg. The first is European meeting of people with disabilities in 1989 and the so called Strasbourg Resolution on Independent Living and the foundation of Independent Living and later ENIL was set up. The second was the start of the Strasbourg Freedom Drive in 2003. This was quite important at the time, to bring together many people with disabilities to fight for Independent Living and to think about it, to exchange ideas, it strengthened the movement.

What is your vision for Independent Living at present and for the future?

At present it does not look very well. There is a recession happening in many countries. Countries which have moved towards deinstitutionalisation and achieved Independent Living conditions could now move backwards as a result of financial cuts, for example what happened in Dublin last year and what happened in Britain in 2011. John Evans spoke about the situation in Britain and this especially concerned us here in Serbia. We are at the stage where we are still working towards basic Independent Living and we always had in mind the situations in other countries and taking examples for good practice from them. Now in this economic crisis, these countries Government are trying to cuts funds for people with disabilities, it does not look good. We really need to get organised to fight if we want to preserve what we have achieved so far or make what needs to be done happen.

I think we need to support young people to understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Young people today get many of the rights without having to fight for them and therefore take them for granted. It is good to live life like this, but all the time you have to cautious that at any moment the philosophy of Independent Living will be diluted. There could always be a chance of this, we have to be ready to fight and preserve Independent Living. We have to find a way to pass on this experience and knowledge that we have to young people with disabilities.  John Evans, Bente Skansgard and myself, we are all actually in the late stages of our lives and we collected so many experiences in fighting for this for many decades it would be a pity to see all of this vanish. We must find a way to transfer to young people, not necessarily that they would have to fight through all this fight and difficulty that we had to achieve a normal life.

If we manage to get people with disabilities to stay together and overcome this economic crisis then we would have an Independent Living future, the more you are achieving, fight for rights, you have to start believing in this future. If we achieve this Independent Living future and people with disabilities get to be like anyone else we would not need to exist any longer. There is always a danger that the philosophy will be diluted, something else could happen. We witness a number of countries who are going backwards to a more medical approach and old fashioned solutions. We need to protect the whole idea and concept and the terminology of Independent Living. It now fashionable to use the word Independent Living, not knowing at all what it means. This is a huge challenge in front of us: how to protect and make sure when we talk about Independent Living we all have the same understanding. What we need now is a strategy to overcome this.

You will be speaking at the Strasbourg Freedom Drive, can you tell me a little about what you will be speaking about?

I will mostly discuss about my independent experience as a member of the Serbian parliament in the last five years. It is important to be involved in policy making and politics if you want to influence decision makers and the whole decision making process. It is important be as close to that as you can, you should try if possible to be among them, you should be included in the process in order to change it.It is important for people to understand disabled people’s organisations. We asked disabled people’s organisation in Serbia if they communicated with political parties, more than 60% said no. Why is this? Most organisations do not want to be involved in the any politics. The rest of the organisations involved said they occasionally asked for favours or for funding with very few involved in the decision making process. This is not good as there are local elections every 2-3 years in Serbia.

In 2003 we brought a Personal Assistance scheme into the system. When the party in Government in Serbia changes everything begins all over again, you must lobby and explain everything again which is a difficult practice. It is important to be in communication with all political parties and use this connection to further the rights of people with disabilities.Being a Member of Parliament for five years has shown how important it is to have a voice in there. 250 members of Parliament could see me have trouble opening the door, they could see that I needed the Personal Assistant to move things, there was no need for explanation, they could see in practice that I could participate equally once I had support provided.

Because I was a member of Parliament a rule of procedures for parliament changed: if there is an MP with a disability then supports that a person needs in order to exercise their right as a MP must be financed. This clause did not exist in Parliament before I was an MP and it will now stay there for someone else.It is important that we are included in the process, it took us eight years to bring Personal Assistance into the system in 2003. This Personal Assistance scheme was based on what I had seen in Ireland. It showed that there is a cost benefit to the quality of life of people with disabilities that is not measurable. Thanks to this service, there is now an army of new advocates and leaders for Independent Living and Philosophy. A number of them become politically active in their local communities, become advisors to Councils, and work with social protection bodies and local community agencies. People with disabilities are becoming more engaged in policy development, they are included in the public life and show with their own examples why it is important to be involved in policy making.

Why do you think the Strasbourg Freedom Drive is such an important event?  

People who participate feel a strength by being part of the Strasbourg Freedom Drive, people are not fighting on their own. Many of your peers are fighting for your own goal and you learn from each other. There is an exchange of experience, what has worked in one country could be adapted to circumstances in your own country. There is an influence on politics and we continue to insist on the demands developed ten years ago. I think now it is time to think about strategy, how to use this power and unity and put more pressure on the European Parliament  to monitor what is happening inside the European Parliament . It is very powerful and creates a great atmosphere to hand over our demands to the President of the Parliament.  It is time to think about the Strategy to move this forward.It is an important event as it shows the strength of the Independent Living Movement.  Last time CIL Serbia brought people from Serbia who had participated in the last Freedom Drive and some people from Bosnia who had never participated in the Freedom Drive before. This year we hope to bring more people from Serbia and Bosnia who have never traveled to the Strasbourg Freedom Drive and make the movement wider and stronger.

February 28, 2013

http://www.inno-serv.eu/sites/default/files/InnoServ_Newsletter%201_21Dec12.pdf

Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Serbia and Montenegro participated at regional seminar in Doboj on 15/16 of February 2013 within the project of Balkans Independent Disability Network. Work group’s representatives from mentionedcountries  worked tigetger on further methodology on this project.

These definitions are intended for use in the development of guidelines, policy and legislation at European Union level, Member State level and local level. They are to give decision makers clear guidance for the design and implementation of disability policy. They have been developed to prevent manipulation and the misuse of our language in the production of counter-productive policy.

The concept of Independent Living (IL)[1] is much older than the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’) and has surely played a part in the adoption of the CRPD, including Article 19 and all the other articles that make Independent Living a human right. Article 19 covers having the right to choose as to where, with whom and how to live one’s life. This allows for self-determination upon which IL is based.  There is a continuous debate on independence vs. interdependence; ENIL considers that all human beings are interdependent and that the concept of IL does not contravene this. IL does not mean being independent from other persons, but to have the freedom of choice and control over one’s own life and lifestyle.[1] Independent Living derives from the Independent Living-movement that started late 1960s in Berkeley, California as a grassroots movement.

Independent Living (IL):

IL is the daily demonstration of human rights based disability policies. IL is possible through the combination of various environmental and individual factors that allow  disabled people to have control over their own lives.  This includes the opportunity to make choices and decisions regarding where to live, with whom to live and how to live. Services must be accessible to all and provided on the basis of equal opportunity, allowing disabled people flexibility in our daily life. IL requires that the built environment and transport are accessible, that there is availability of technical aids, access to personal assistance and/or community-based services. It is necessary to point out that IL is for all disabled persons, no matter the level of support need

Personal Assistance (PA):

PA is a tool which allows for IL. PA is earmarked cash allocations for disabled people, the purpose of which is to pay for any assistance needed.  PA should be provided on the basis of individual needs assessment depending on the life situation of each individual and in consistency with the domestic labour market. Disabled people must have the right to recruit and manage our assistants and choose the employment model which is most suitable for our needs. PA allocations must cover the salaries of personal assistants and other performance costs, such as all contributions due by the employer, administration costs and peer support for the person who needs assistance.

Deinstitutionalisation (DI):

DI is a political and social process which provides for the shift from institutional care and other isolating and segregating settings to IL. Effective DI occurs when a person placed in an institution is given the opportunity to become a full citizen and take control of his/her life (if necessary, with support). Essential to the process of DI is the provision of affordable and accessible housing in the community, access to public services, personal assistance, and peer support.   DI is also about preventing institutionalization in the future; ensuring that children are able to grow up with their families and alongside neighbors and friends in the community instead of being segregated in institutional care.

Community-based Services (CBS)

Development of CBS requires both a political and social approach and is enshrined in policy measures for making all public services, such as housing, education, transportation, health care and others, available and accessible to disabled people in mainstream settings. CBS refers to the provision of appropriate accommodation to ensure that disabled people can access mainstream services and opportunities and live as equal citizens. CBS eliminate the need for parallel services, such as institutions, special schools, long-term hospitals for health care, para-transit facilities for transport, sheltered jobs etc. Group homes are not IL, nor CBS.

Adopted November 2012 by the ENIL board