News

Accessibility Week dedicated to problems of all the types of Accessibility for persons with disabilities will be held for the first time in the Republic of Belarus. HR defence and educational organization “Office for the rights of persons with disabilities” is the organizer of the event. The event will be held under the slogan “From accessibility to equality”. Accessibility Week is an informal, nonstandard, inclusive and open for everyone event.

“The aim of the event is the raise of attention to and understanding of the problems of persons with disabilities in the frames of the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. We invite all the interested people, NGOs and state owned organizations to take part in Accessibility Week, to present their ideas and projects on this topic, to discuss and to communicate. If your activities are aimed at the raise of Accessibility for persons with disabilities you are welcome to share your experience and success”, said about the event the coordinator of the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities Sergey Drozdovskiy.

On April 18 International conference “Topical problems equality principle realization in law. European experience: from theory to practice” took place. Educational HR defence organization “Office for the rights of persons with disabilities” in cooperation with Rosa Luxemburg fund are the organizers of the event.

The main principle of equality of all people is pronounced in the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But it is not properly used in everyday life, not speaking about different aspects of human communications in the society. The main principle of equality is in the basis of principle of justice.

On April 18, 2013 international conference “Topical problems of quality principal realization in law. European experience: from theory to practice” will be held in Minsk. Educational HR defence organization “Office for the rights of persons with disabilities” in cooperation with Rosa Luxemburg fund are the organizers of the event.

The Office for the rights of persons with disabilities summed up the results of the contest of essay on topic “Accessibility and Disability”. This year the members of the jury were unanimous – the winner is Irina Dergach with the essay “Students, who were not waited for”. The essay is about accessibility of education for children with disability, in particular, for children with autism. This problem is important for me, because my elder child is an autist. And I learned at first hand how schools don’t want to accept such kids, do not want to see them.

The Office for the rights of persons with disabilities on February 28, 2013 held round table “Accessibility of legal assistance for persons with disabilities”. It took place in the frames of information campaign “Accessibility”. Law clinic of Belarusian State Economic University became our partner in this initiative.

Once again, the Essl Foundation, the World Future Council and Bank Austria have joined forces to convene an international conference in Vienna, Austria. On this occasion, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization, we aim to raise awareness about innovative solutions from around the world that implement employment rights of persons with disabilities.  The conference  seeks to strengthen the commitment of all stakeholders to promote, protect and advance the rights of persons with disabilities, and to improve their employment situation.

The project of the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities “Monitoring of barrier-free environment” is finished.

The presentation of its results took place on February 6, 2013. Office for the rights of persons with disabilities presented “Guidelines for monitoring the accessibility of architectural objects, buildings and constructions for persons with disabilities” and the instrument for monitoring of accessibility of construction objects for persons with disabilities and other categories of weak persons.

In 2012 Office for the rights of persons with disabilities took part and assisted in several precedential trials in the sphere of protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. All the trials were won by the claimants – persons with disabilities who tried to protect their rights. In some time after the trials we asked the claimants “What happened after the trial had been finished and if the judgments were enforced?”

Khaletskiy’s case: labour relations

Prepared by the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities.

Monitoring of citizens’ appeals.

Period: December 2012

56 appeals were received from December 1 till December 31 2012 by the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities.
27 appeals were taken for further more detailed consideration by the Office’s lawyers.

Appeals in numbers.

Public association “Belarusian society of disabled” and Common union of German disabled “For self-determination and dignity” have started the realization of joint project “Inclusive social space for common good”. This is an educational project and pursues two main goals.

First of all, it is the advanced training of “BSD’s” activists at regional and local levels. BSD’s activists will work together with German experts on “peer-counseling” principle, because German experts are also disabled.