Office for the rights of persons with disabilities considers that at the stage of preliminary investigation people with severe illnesses and mental disabilities should not be kept in custody but under a written undertaking not to leave a place. Letters with a request to change the legislation have been sent to the House of Representative of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Health.

Representatives of Belarusian HR defence organizations, the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities is one of them, support the approval of the Interdepartmental plan on realization of recommendations adopted by the Republic of Belarus based on the results of the second cycle of periodical review in the UN Human Rights Council and recommendations for Belarus made by human rights treaty bodies for 2016-2019.

Festival “InclusiON” took place in Kharkov, it was dedicated to a barrier-free environment. Specialists of the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities became experts at several events in the frames of the festival.

A manual “22 steps to the strategy of equal possibilities provision for persons with disabilities in local communities” has been placed in “Resources” on our website. It was translated from Polish into Belarusian language. The authors - P. Todys, M. Peretiatkowicz.

Specialists of the “Office for the rights of persons with disabilities” welcome first steps in development of accessibility of election process in Belarus which have been made by the state, but it is not enough – obligatory standards should be worked out.

Today on International day for equal rights of people with disabilities and against disability discrimination a number of NGOs presented Zero Report. 

Office for the rights of persons with disabilities from April 28 till May 6 for the fourth time is holding Accessibility Week – a number of events devoted to the topic of elimination of any barriers preventing people with disabilities from living a full life. This year open discussions, round tables, meetings with experts, topical film shows, exhibitions and lectures will take place in Minsk, Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Bobruisk, Novopolotsk, Volozhin and Polotsk.

Office for the rights of persons with disabilities launches a new campaign “Agenda 50”. It has been planned and will be realized together with the international consortium “EuroBelarus”, Center for European Transformation, TUS (Poland) and NGO “European house” (Denmark).

This issue has often been raised lately in European countries. Every year European countries introduce something new to election process making it more accessible for potentially discriminated groups including people with disabilities. They still have lots of problems in this sphere but they also understand that: participation of people with disabilities in political life is an important indicator of accessibility and democracy of the country on the whole.

It became possible to make the convention accessible to blind people thanks to work of the Informational center of NGO “BelTiz”. A part of the printed copies was sent to organizations working with visually impaired people and interested persons another part was distributed by the UN representation including during international topical events – seminars and conferences.