A New Decade for Disability Rights

A New Decade for Disability Rights:

The UNCRPD and the EU Disability Strategy

Summary of WE Seminar 28 February - 1 March 2011, Brussels

0.    Introduction

The seminar, entitled “A New Decade for Disability Rights: The UNCRPD and the EU Disability Strategy” was the first in a series to be held over the cause 2011. The seminar aimed to enhance the understanding of participants of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities as well as the new EU Disability Strategy.

All given presentations (EUSE, Andre Gubbels, European Commission, and Vleva) can be found on the Workability Europe website.(see for supporting papers under Publications/Documents)

1.     EUSE Presentation

Mr Mike Evans, the current President of the European Union for Supported Employment (EUSE), outlined his group’s work. He explained the development of the EUSE Toolkit for Supported Employment – copies of which are on the EUSE website. This toolkit follows a step by step approach to bringing people into the workplace; it has been developed by an international editorial panel and is also available in German, Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish. Mr Evans explained that the toolkit has in build quality standards and has been endorsed by all EUSE national associations, with a template for training materials – not just for people with disabilities, but all jobseekers.   A lively discussion followed his presentation.

2.    EDF Presentation on the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

The European Disability Forum (EDF) was represented by Ms Janina Arsenjeva, who gave a brief overview of the state of ratification by EU Member States – 16 so far. She also explained that the implementation measures require Member States which ratify the Convention to submit, two years after its ratification, a national report on the state of implementation. Ms Arsenjeva urged the participants to join other national civil society groups in submitting their view of a Member State’s level of implementation; she furthermore encouraged everybody present to submit one report to the relevant UN Agency in Geneva.

3.    Implementation of UN Convention in Belgium

Andre Gubbels, the Director General of the Belgian Federal Ministry for Social Security outlined the progress which Belgium has made in implementing the UN Convention at national level. Mr Gubbels underlined that the UN Convention moved away from the Charity/Medical Model of Disability to a Rights-based Model, where peoples with disability were entitled to seek from the State full and equal enjoyment of rights and freedoms and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. This element, he explained, is already enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the new UN Convention makes explicit its application to people with disabilities – especially their acquired rights to: education, access to transport and social inclusion – thus, the States which have ratified the UN Convention should then facilitate accessibility. Mr Gubbels said that much work had to be undertaken to redesigning social security systems to encourage people with disabilities to enter the labour market – current programmes were not successful.

4.    The EU Disability Strategy 2020

Mr Daniel Schmidt of the EU Commission’s Disability Unit, outlined the Commission’s 2020 Strategy, which ties in with the overall Europe 2020 strategy. The European Council ratified the UN Convention on 26 November 2010 and it came into force on 22 January 2011. The EU Strategy focuses on eliminating barriers and empowering people to enjoy their full citizenship rights. The Strategy identifies actions which can be undertaken at EU level to supplement those at national level and identifies the support need for funding, research and other actions. The EU will also monitor the implementation in the member states. Nevertheless, Mr Schmidt pointed out that many of the areas touched by the UN Convention fell outside the scope of EU responsibility.

 5.     Implementation of UNCRPD in Flanders

Mr Jos Sterckx, the expert of the Liaison Agency Flanders-Europe (Vleva) dealing with the UN Convention, outlined briefly Vleva’s role in the implementation of the UN Convention in the region. Vleva’s role was targeted on developing networks and acting as a knowledge broker to the region and supporting project development geared to the UN Convention’s implementation at local level. An import element was the UN Convention’s impact on education – i.e., by promoting integrated educational access and also in the care section. Social policies would have to be adapted to the rights-based approach – particularly in the employment sector Mr Sterckx stated.