On 17 January 2014, the Southampton Centre for Independent Living – SPECTRUM held an event to celebrate 30 years since John Evans left an institution and started to live independently. Numerous independent living activists, from both the UK and abroad, gathered in Southampton or sent messages, paying tribute to John and saying “thank you” for…
ENIL has received an urgent request for support from the City of Vancouver Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee, regarding plans to build a new institution for people with disabilities in Vancouver – to be discussed at a meeting on 22 January. They are asking for letters of protest to be sent to the Vancouver City…
As part of advocacy for better use of Structural Funds in Central and Eastern Europe, the European Network on Independent Living and the Open Society Foundations – Mental Health Initiative held a successful roundtable with representatives of the European Commission, Member States, the European Parliament and the civil society. The meeting, organised on 7 November…
‘Community Living for All’, A conference on the Future Role of the European Union Structural Funds to Advance Community Living for Older People and People with Disabilities took place on Friday 3rd May 2013 in Áras Moyola, National University of Ireland, Republic of Ireland. On the occasion of this Conference, a press release urging the…
In the first week of February 2013, ENIL representatives traveled to Bulgaria to meet with local authority officials about the current situation of people with disabilities in Bulgaria and about the progress being made toward Independent Living there. ENIL also held a training session on Independent Living for young people with disabilities who are living…
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…
On 7 June 2012, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published two new reports on the rights of people with disabilities. The reports capture the experiences of exclusion and discrimination of people with intellectual disabilities or mental health problems that still persist despite the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of…
“We have a dream of a society where all people are born equal and remain equal their whole lives, let’s achieve it” Thomas Stenitzer, Founder of Mind Change. Thomas is one of the founding members of a new NGO, Mind Change, in Carinthia, Austria. Thomas was inspired to start Mind Change by a bad disability-related social…
Aglaia Katsigianni from Drama,Greece was the dear guest of CIL Sofia for the European day of protests for equal rights for disabled people. Katsigianni represents the Paraplegic Association of Drama which is an affiliated member of ENIL. The point of the study visit was to exchange experiences and knowledge of Independent Living between Greece and…
European day of protest for equal rights for disabled people in Sofia, Bulgaria Several dozen people participated in a protest organized by CIL Sofia in front of the Bulgarian National Assembly inSofia. At the event there were 4 cages – one big enough to fit 5 or 6 people and 3 smaller cages for one or two persons….
Finland has a plan to close down all institutions for people with intellectual disabilities by 2020 and that by 2016 no more than 500 persons will be living in institutions. The close-down of these institutions is a necessity for Finland to be able to ratify the UN convention of the rights of persons with disabilities….
The first European Mind Change Conference will take place in Villach, Austria from the 2nd – 4th May 2012. Mind Change is an NGO that promotes the social inclusion of disabled people. They believe that in order “to achieve a liveable, fearless and equal society for all people including people with disabilities, a public Mind…
Every year around the 5th May, the European day of protest for equal rights for people with disabilities, there are many actions and initiatives of disability organizations in many parts of Germany. On 10 May 2011 more than 1,000 people with and without disabilities met for a demonstration with the motto “bailout/parachutes for all!” going…
“ The right of people with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community” Issue Paper commissioned and published by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Download it here in PDF Format
The UK is at risk of breaching international obligations to disabled people, so I’m proud to help safeguard independence Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/01/disabled-people-have-come-far As a severely disabled person, I am reminded every day of the tremendous progress made over the past 30 years in the UK to enable disabled people to become active citizens. Autonomy and freedom would…
On the 9th February 2012 ENIL and the European parliamentary group GUE/NGL (European United Left/Nordic Green Left) held a hearing in the European Parliament. The purpose of this hearing was to show from a number of perspectives how people with disabilities are being negatively affected by the EU current austerity policies. This is the first…
Letter about human rights violations in the Czech Republic in the so-called “Homes for the Elderly This letter is based on my personal experiences and findings in the so-called “Home for the Elderly” in Hermanuv Mestec, which is under the direction of the Prague Municipality. People are placed in these “homes” without knowing what…
On January 22 and 23, 2012 the International Conference on Good Policies for Persons with Disabilities took place for the first time in Vienna, Austria with ENIL participating through Jamie Bolling, the ENIL Executive Director (see her speech). It was part of the Zero Project – zero as in zero barriers (see www.zeroproject.org/ ) with…
Through its project the European Coalition for Community Living, ENIL is a member of the Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (EEG). The Group, established in 2009 at the initiative of the then Commissioner Spidla, has already produced the Report of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional…
By Josefin Sterner, intern at the JAG Association A charting of the existence of institutions and personal assistance in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland shows that though the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have been signed and soon ratified by all of these countries the result vastly varies…
