Inclusion Europe launched a European report on the rights of children with intellectual disabilities

Inclusion Europe did a research to see if countries in Europe respect the rights of children with intellectual disabilities. The results of this research are now in a report. The report shows that there are a lot of things that the countries in Europe should do in order to protect the rights of children with intellectual disabilities. Inclusion Europe presented this report in a conference in Brussels.

After 2 years of extensive research, the European Report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child for children with intellectual disabilities was officially launched at a European conference in Brussels. The report revealed that children with intellectual disabilities face a significantly higher risk of discrimination, exclusion and neglect than non-disabled children. In fact, the researchers reported very little evidence or information on children with intellectual disabilities. This makes a real implementation of the Convention and its monitoring for this "invisible" group of children nearly impossible.

The European Report together with individual national reports covering 22 EU member states will serve as lobbying tool for NGOs working to enforce protection of children with intellectual disabilities in their countries. It is the main deliverable of the project Children's rights for all!    

Drafted in English, the European Report will soon be available in 21 EU languages. The national reports can already be downloaded from the project website www.childrights4all.eu in both original version and English.

The reports were officially presented in the final conference of the Children's Righst for All project, which took place on 20-21 October 2011 in Brussels. There, the Regional Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jan Jaab, welcomed·this initiative; so did the representatives of the Council of Europe, UNICEF and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.

The conference concluded with an important call for action presented by Inclusion Europe's President Maureen Piggot:

Implementing Children's Rights

• The·research made clear that most European countries provide a very limited statistical data specifically·related to children with intellectual disabilities. Nevertheless, disaggregated data for children with intellectual disabilities is essential information in the attempt to undertake a real implementation and monitoring of their rights.
• A lot of good practices, pilot projects and training programmes were recorded. Nevertheless, systemic changes are still missing!Authorities thus need to take responsibilities for multiplying these experiences to avoid relying only on NGOs projects and initiatives.
• Both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognise the right of the child·to live in the community and in family type setting. However, families still do not receive adequate support, while in many countries, institutional care remains a response for families and children at risk. Community based services exist, but they do not necessarily benefit to all children with intellectual disabilities and the most vulnerable families. Despite the recognition of the vulnerability of children with intellectual disabilities, the available supports (early prevention, community based services, financial benefits, psychological support) for families are still insufficient.

Children's voices need to be heard!

• Children's voices need to be heard!·We need ensure that the opinion of children with intellectual disabilities is heard and taken into account·when decisions·are taken·on issues affecting them.
• Children must be led towards participation and getting involved from early age. They should be trained on self-advocacy already at primary schools to become adult self-advocates and trained on citizenship to become full members of the society. This is one way to combat stigma and prejudices against children with intellectual disabilities.
• Working with media is another area where still lot needs to be done; collaboration with media is indespensable to·improve the image·of people with intellectual disabilities in society and provide more positive pictures of them.

What we can do

Closing the conference, the president of Inclusion Europe, Maurenn Piggot, further·encouraged all experts and people involved in this·initiative to submit·its results and findings to the Committee on the Rights of the Child but also to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Universal Periodic Review and other UN Conventions (CEDAW/CPT),·in order to·support mainstreaming of disability ·as a Human Rights issue: "Use your expertise and work in an efficient way! Join NGOs coalitions to work together in partnership to produce shadow reports. We hope that this project and the reports will create a positive impulse for the collaboration between disability rights and children’s rights NGOs in the monitoring of the implementation of both Conventions and in the preparation of alternative reports." The experiences reported by several national exerts have proven the usefulness of this project and of this joint collaboration for the advocacy work in their country.

We need to make the best use of other Human Rights instruments, such·as those·provided by·the Council of Europe, for example the·2007 Convention on the prevention against sexual abuse and the 2011 Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence – which is also·relevant for girls.

It is all about value

Finally, during the 2 days of the conference, it was stated a number of times·that governments use the financial crisis as an excuse to justify the budget cuts and stopping progresses in implementing children's rights, for instance, in the realisation of inclusive education. This is an unacceptable position. In addition, we need resources and funds but above all political will and cooperation are the critical point. Governments need to recognise the equal value of children with intellectual disabilities, as for any other children.

More information about the project and its results is provided at www.childrights4all.eu