Five years after the ratification by Moldova of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, representatives of state institutions and civil society and foreign experts came together at an international conference staged by the Office of People’s Ombudsman to analyze legal and practical aspects of the implementation process. During the two-day conference, the participants will take stock of the results achieved by Moldova in the process and the overdue measures, IPN reports.
People’s Ombudsman Mihail Cotorobai said that by ratifying the Convention, Moldova pledged to obey its provisions, namely to promote, protect and observe the rights of persons with disabilities. The legislation on the protection of the rights of disabled persons now contains general provisions and difficulties are encountered in the implementation process. The normative framework should be efficient so that the rights and freedoms of this group of people are fully guaranteed.
According to the ombudsman, the most recent statistical data show that there are about 184,000 persons with disabilities in Moldova, over 134,000 of whom are children. The number of cases of disability among children younger than two has increased. The conference participants presented communications about the lack of wheelchair access in buildings and units of transport, the difficulties faced by the persons with sensor disabilities and the barriers encountered by the persons with special needs in the social inclusion process.
Deputy Head of Parliament Liliana Palihovici said that by ratifying the Convention five years ago, Moldova expressed political will and commitment to improve the situation concerning the observance of the rights of the disabled persons and a number of legislative amendments were later made to achieve this objective. “I consider the problem we discuss today is not legislative in character or related to the implementation mechanism. It is a problem of society. The healthy people continue to treat the persons with disabilities as different from them. Efforts should be joined to produce a change in society,” she stated.
Acting minister of labor, social protection and family Ruxanda Glavan said the convention was ratified with the aim of changing society’s attitude so that the people start to look at the persons with disabilities not only through the angle of special social protection needs, but also through the angle of human rights and join social and education inclusion efforts.
Human Rights Adviser to the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Moldova Claude Cahn said that the situation after the ratification has improved, but only half way was covered and many actions must yet to be taken to reach veritable progress. Progress was made especially in the inclusion of children with disabilities in the general education system. A lot of effort is yet needed to fully guarantee the rights of the disabled persons.
Four workshops will be held within the conference on July 10. These are entitled: “Social inclusion of children with disabilities”, ”Disabled persons’ access to social infrastructure”, “Situation of the observance of the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities”, and “Disabled persons’ access to justice”.
