In This Issue
Hate crime conference in Dublin...
Pride Parade in Oslo and Accessible March in Stockholm...
Personal assistance law for Iceland in 2014...
Role model...Emma Johansson
141 years of Wardship in the Republic of Ireland......
Zero Project Report: Inaccessible goods and services constitute a major problem...
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Independent Living News! Editorial team
Jamie Bolling
Ines Bulic
Juan Benages
Kerstin Sellin

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    29th June, 2012

 

Enil logoIndependent

Living News!


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European Network
on Independent Living

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Editorial Team Update

  

It's time for a new issue of the Independent Living News with a special focus on the countries up north. We are happy to announce that Sweden is moving closer towards accessibility discrimination legislation. The Swedish Parliament has demanded a proposal for this legislation be written up, stating that there is no need for further investigation.

 

One of many people who have been fighting for this for the past few years is independent living activist Emma Johansson.

 

- Finally, the exclusion that I face daily is to be called by its proper name: discrimination, says Emma Johansson, president of user co-operative STIL and spokesperson for the Accessibility March during 2006-2011.

 

Read more about Emma Johansson here.

 

Please enjoy the summer and this well-filled newsletter!

 Hate crime conference in Dublin

 

I attended a conference in Dublin about disability hate crime. The conference was arranged by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE. OSCE is the world's largest regional security organisation.

 

The conference participants had various impairments and I represented people with intellectual disabilities.

 

Recognition of and legislation relating to disability hate crime is different in different countries and overall across Europe there is a situation of uncertainty about how to define disability hate crime.

 

The Pride Parade took place in Oslo the 9th of June with more than 400 people participating. The parade was organized by Uloba together with the two largest disability organizations in Norway.

This year's Pride Prize was given to Marte Wexelsen Goks�yr. She became known when she showed up at the Norwegian Parliament wearing a t-shirt bearing the words �endangered�. She has been keen to express her opionion on prenatal diagnosis and has been active in the debate about screening out unwanted fetuses.

 

 

By: Ciara Siobhan Brennan, e-mail: [email protected]

                     

Iceland is due to enact a personal assistance law (NPA) in 2014. In 2012 the Icelandic Ministry for Welfare published a guidebook outlining the rules for personal assistance, but this is not the law. Until the law is enacted each municipality in Iceland can decide whether or not to follow the guidelines. This article will explain some of the rules that are outlined in the guidebook.

   
Role model

 

Emma Johansson - municipality lady by day and independent living activist by night

 

 

By: Ciara Siobhan Brennan, e-mail: [email protected]

 

According to Amnesty International, the Republic of Ireland has the most outdated capacity law in Europe (Amnesty International, 2012). A "ward of court" system exists in the Republic of Ireland, which dates back to the Lunacy Act of 1871. Wardship removes a person's legal capacity under Irish law. Legal capacity is a prerequisite to other fundamental human rights such as the right to liberty and to live independently. The European Commissioner for Human Rights (2012) describes legal capacity as follows:

"Having legal capacity enables us to choose where and with whom we want to live, to vote for the political party we prefer, to have our health care decisions respected, to control our own financial affairs and to have access to cinemas and other leisure activities. Without it we are non-persons in the eyes of the law"  

 

 

The Zero Project creates platforms for sharing and developing models that clearly improve the daily lives and legal rights of people with disabilities.

 

Under the lead of Dr. �dam K�sa, MEP, the Essl Foundation and the World Future Council and in collaboration with the European Disability Forum, more than 70 parliamentarians, policy experts and representatives of disability organisations met at the European Parliament on the 21st June 2012 for a high level debate on how to unlock Europe's potential through accessibility.