26 November 2009
The European Community has just ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Unprecedented step forward for the first human rights treaty ratified in the history of Europe and a great signal sent to all EU Members States.
In today’s session of the Council of the European Union, the European Community ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). This ratification represents a major policy shift toward enforcing human rights obligations and putting disability on top of the human rights agenda: this is the first time in the European Union history that the Community is going to accede to an international human rights treaty.
“Pentru Voi” Foundation and IPP ask the Parliament to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
3 December, Bucharest/ Timisoara
“Pentru Voi” Foundation and the Institute for Public Politics (IPP) request from the Romanian authorities to apply the principles stated by Romania in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, recently ratified by the EU.
After 20 years of successive reforms, less than 2% of the individuals with intellectual disabilities have access to social care and less than 1% are employed. These statistics stand for people condemned to isolation, to sacrificed families. Therefore, we make an appeal to the future Government and Parliament of Romania to act in order to diminish these individuals’ and their families’ drama. After a lifetime of sacrifice, the parents of individuals with intellectual disabilities request from the Romanian state the right to a dignified and decent life for their children. “A first step in this direction would be the ratification of UN Convention”, declared Laila Onu, CEO of “Pentru Voi” Foundation.
“Pentru Voi” Foundation, together with the Institute for Public Politics (IPP), while supporting the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities, considers that the ratification of UN’s convention in the near future represents a commitment of the Romanian society in regards to the rights of persons with disabilities.
“For almost 2 years we have been waiting for the Government and the Parliament to establish what the international community has already decided in a record time: the active promotion of the rights of individuals with disabilities. Today, as we approach the presidential elections, we find that the authorities-i.e. the legislative and executive power- have both a legal and a moral duty to apply the Convention’s principles” , states Violeta Alexandru, director of IPP.
The CRPD has set a number of precedents: it is the first major Human Rights treaty of the 21st century and the fastest to have been ratified by an impressive number of countries since its entry into force in 2008. With 143 signatories and 74 ratifications only just 32 months after opening the Convention for signatures, the UN CRPD sets an unprecedented record of commitment by the international community.
As a country that has signed the Convention, Romania has the duty to finalize this process in order to determine a true reform for creating an adequate life style for individuals with disabilities. This can be achieved through ratifying the Convention by the Parliament at the beginning of the next legislative session.
For more information please contact Laila Onu, CEO of “Pentru Voi” Foundation at tel. 0256 228 062 and Violeta Alexandru, director of IPP, at tel. 0212 123 126 or mobile phone 0723 257 640.
The UN Convention in the European Union
In the European Union, more than 65 million persons have a disability, representing more than 10% of the residents from 27 countries. Since its entry into force on May 2008, the Convention has been signed by all Member States and by the European Community; it has been ratified by 12 of them (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, and the UK)