Europe thinks local on rights

Paul Carter reports from an EU conference that set out to get right down to local issues

At the Charlemagne Conference Centre in Brussels, representatives of governments, disabled people’s organisations and charities from across Europe gathered for a conference organised by the European Commission to mark the 2008 European Day of People with Disabilities.

The theme for the conference was “Acting Locally for a Society for All”, and focused on how actions made at a European level can and should have a direct impact on real people “on the ground” in the 27 member states.

The keynote speaker was Yannis Vardakastanis, President of the European Disability Forum.

He urged those present from member state governments to bear in mind that their decisions, though seemingly
distant, can have a real impact on the lives of all disabled people.

He said: “The local level is where people with disabilities live, where people with disabilities work, and the need is there to make local societies accessible and open to all to be able to exercise fully their rights.”

Mr Vardakastanis also said that sticking to the concept of “nothing about disabled people without disabled people” was vital for both the future success of European policy in general and any meaningful implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

“The empowerment of organisations of people with disabilities, we believe, is the obligation of governments and authorities, starting from the local level to the national and right up to the European, so the involvement of disabled people is indispensable for a successful implementation of the convention,” he said.

Representing Great Britain as a speaker was Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for the East of England, who spent several years working for a disabled people’s organisation in London.

He said, “One of the tests, when we do all the work we do at the European level, is whether one of those disabled people with whom I used to work will be trapped in their beds for the day or whether their home carer or nurse will forget to turn up to get them out of bed.

“That’s a hard test, but it’s the only test if we are really to change lives and tear down the walls of discrimination, as far as disabled people are concerned.”

He also called for “swift ratification” of the convention by all EU member states, “including the optional protocol and without, or with very few, reservations on the text.”

He said: “As a loyal member of the governing party of the UK, that does not prevent me from calling on my own British Labour government colleagues also to do that, including the optional protocol in public before you today.”