The disabled persons in Moldova have waited for three years for the Government to approve the amendments to the law on the social protection of disabled persons proposed by the public organizations in the area, said Mihai Margineanu, chairman of the Association of Disabled Persons. At an international conference in Chisinau on December 3, Margineanu said that the national legislation in the area is in line with the international standards, but there are certain lacunas. At the same time, says Mihai Margineanu, the problems of the disabled persons are more of a technical character. The society’s attitude towards the people with disabilities is worrying. Margineanu considers that not only a law can create better living conditions for this category of people. According to him, the disabled persons are supported more by the local public authorities than by the central authorities. The institutions are a barrier to the inclusion of the disabled people and the institutional care should be replaced with community care, said Hans Sluiter, consultant of the Council of Europe. He stressed the necessity of creating professional support centres and of launching rehabilitation programmes. According to the European expert, a hindrance to the integration of the disabled persons is the attitude of the society. The Council of Europe has 47 member states with an overall population of 800 million, 10-15% of who are disabled. The Council of Europe’s Plan of Action in the area for 2006 – 2015 envisages that the disabled persons will take part in the political, public and cultural life in order to influence the process of making decisions that affects their lives. The plan also envisages equal access to education and employment so as the disabled have the possibility of developing the personal talents and of finding an ordinary job. The policies in the area are based on the sentiment of pity and do not comply with the modern requirements. The present system for the social protection of people with special needs must be reorganized, President Vladimir Voronin said at the conference. According to the head of state, the concept of the system for assessing the persons with disabilities must be modified. The disabled must not be labelled as dependent and incapable of holding a job. The notion of invalidity must be replaced with disability as this would contribute to the elimination of discriminatory stipulations that point to the “exclusivity” of the persons with disabilities, Voronin said. There are 168,700 disabled persons in Moldova at present. Over 13,000 of these are children. The disabled make up about 9% of the Moldovan population. The International Day of Disabled Persons is observed yearly on December 3.