2023-08-20 08:36:12
Ombudsman Achitz: Enable inclusion, end discrimination!
Vienna (OTS) – Austria still has a lot of work to do in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-BRK). In the coming week, the Austrian implementation will be examined by the UN Committee of Experts in Geneva. Ombudsman Bernhard Achitz will point out the need for action there: “Austria has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but has by no means fully implemented it.”
The Ombudsman Board often learns this directly from those affected: “Many people with disabilities complain to us, either about bad laws or about the administrative practices of the authorities. This starts with train stations that are not barrier-free, personal assistance is not approved or not to the extent required. There is neither a legal entitlement to rehabilitation nor to having the disability-related additional need paid for. Instead, those affected have to apply to a wide variety of agencies for funding. Every wheelchair, every care bed, every barrier-free conversion becomes a bureaucratic hurdle. People are sent back and forth between federal, state, social security and other actors, instead of a single coordinating body dealing with the concerns of those affected.”
Self-determined life instead of accommodation in a facility
In the case of preventive human rights controls in facilities for people with disabilities and in nursing homes, the Ombudsman Board has recently noticed an increasing number of restrictions on freedom. In one point, the CRPD is actually ignored: “De-institutionalization is only weakly developed in Austria. The idea still prevails that people with disabilities are accommodated in institutions and they will already know what they need. But that is not what the CRPD understands as a self-determined life,” says Achitz. Also work for pocket money in workshops for the disabled must be replaced by paid work, if necessary supported by personal assistance.
Lack of support is discrimination
Achitz: “Self-determination must mean that people with disabilities can also live in their own apartment if they want to. Or working. And if a 15-year-old with a leg amputation wants to swim, then he has to be able to do so, in this case with a swimming prosthesis. Even if it costs a lot of money, he has to get it. Anything else would not be inclusion, but discrimination.”
According to Achitz, there is also a need for action in the field of education: “Parents of children with disabilities have to justify themselves again and again when their daughters and sons want to visit the local kindergarten, school or after-school club with their peers, but these are not geared to their needs.”
Achitz emphasizes how important it is to take part in the state examination together with the monitoring committee, the Ombudsman for Disabled Persons and of course with representatives of the community such as the Council for Disabled Persons and Self-determined Living: “Together we will increase the pressure on politicians so that they can support the UN -BRK finally fully implemented in Austria.”
SERVICE: The state test will be broadcast LIVE:
* Tuesday, August 22, 2023 – 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1w/k1wa7j5aks
* Wednesday, August 23, 2023 – 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1fcu9dwnf
* FAQ on the state examination
The Ombudsman Board is under post@volksanwaltschaft.gv.at and on the free service number 0800 223 223.
Questions & contact:
Florian Kräftner
Media spokesman in the office of Ombudsman Mag. Bernhard Achitz
+43 664 301 60 96
florian.kraeftner@volksanwaltschaft.gv.at
volksanwaltschaft.gv.at
1692520876
#checks #Austrias #compliance #Convention #Rights #Persons #Disabilities