Dos años de investigación exhaustiva sobre la aplicación de los derechos de los niños con discapacidad intelectual. Cinco áreas de enfoque: los servicios de educación, salud, familiares y comunitarias, el abuso y la participación. 22 informes nacionales y un informe europeo.

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Two years of thorough research on the implementation of the rights of children with intellectual disabilities. Five areas of focus: education, health care, family and community-based services, abuse and participation. 22 national reports and one European Report. The results of the project Children’s Rights for All were celebrated in presence of various European and international stakeholders at a final conference last week in Brussels. 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.

– good practices, pilot projects and training programmes. 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 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.

The European Report “Children’s Rights for all! Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for Children with Intellectual Disabilities” can be found together with 22 individual national reports at www.childrights4all.eu.