Representatives of civic society discuss why it is important to sign the Memorandum on joining the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.
The head of Lawtrend: “memorandum is the civic position”
“Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, in my opinion, should have been signed by Belarus long ago”, - says a lawyer and HR defender, the chairperson of the Center for legal transformation Elena Tonkacheva.
She thinks that if the state doesn’t do enough for the humanization in the sphere of human rights of persons with disabilities, for raising standards and giving possibilities to consider disputes in courts in this case NGOs, civic sector and citizens have to show their own attitude to it. “As far as I think, the Memorandum is a civic position. We are ready to take responsibility for raising standards and demand the same from the state”.
One of the reasons to sign the Memorandum by the organization is to show our commitment to the Convention’s objectives.
- We are a HR defence organization which deals with human rights and is actively using international mechanisms in their protection – says Elena. – We state the fact that no progress could have been achieved in many social and social-political issues in post-soviet states if the countries hadn’t been the participants of international treaties.
According to the Lawtrend representative in almost no case concerning discrimination of persons with disabilities the law system took understandable position.
The legal conception of discrimination works very hard in Belarusian court system. In such situation there can be a lot of appeals to international body, but from the other side this fact can delay the signing of the Convention by Belarus.
“The government understands that at some moment we will have to be more open and responsible and then international community will bring its demands to Belarus”.
Representative of the organization “Children. Autism. Parents”: “Everyone should have equal rights”
- Signing of the Memorandum is, first of all, a sign of attitude to the situation with people with disabilities in Belarus – says a representative of international charitable organization “Children. Autism. Parents” Tatiana Iakovleva. – We want understandable and really working legislative initiatives from the government. We want to be a part of the civilized world.
She thinks that it will take a lot of time to prepare a system of new social relations but the country has a chance to move the right way.
- We will have more opportunities to cooperate with state bodies. We evaluate today’s situation as a situation of common psychological transformation and that is why we are waiting for new possibilities – that is how Tatiana evaluates the result of possible signing of the Convention. Tatiana is in direct contact with the Convention’s target audience and states the problematic character of the situation.
“It is difficult to live with a diagnosis “Autism”: unacceptance by the society, inability to study together with other children in kindergarten, school and higher educational establishments, problems with employment and independent living, absence of real social support. And once again we say about the right to be equal with other citizens.
Belarus, the same as international community, has no other legal options, we have to start making effective and targeted steps, to follow other countries who have already signed the Convention”.
Do you want to join? Here (if you want to sign memorandum personally) or here (if you represent an organization).
