Geneva, 19 September 2014 – A side event organised today by the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL), GRIP and Onafhankelijk Leven during the 12th Session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities sent a strong message that there must be no compromises in implementing Article 19 of the UN Convention on…
Debbie Jolly, one of the founders of Disabled People Against Cuts and ENIL Board member discusses the responsibility disabled people’s organisations have in standing up for those whose voice has been taken away. Jolly argues that claims to protect the client’s ‘confidentiality’, allegedly acting ‘in their best interests’, are just a way of silencing opponents of institutionalisation and other forms of involuntary treatment and confinement.
A Conference on the transition from institutional towards community based care in the republic of Slovenia, BRDO was held in Slovenia on the 6th May 2014. As a result of this meeting a number of conclusions were drawn up and are listed below: Deinstitutionalisation, DI, and independent life for various groups, who are living in…
The European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care has just published a Revised Edition of the Toolkit on the Use of EU Funds for the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care. The Revised Toolkit takes account of the final version of the European Structural and Investment Funds Regulations 2014 – 2020….
Press Release from Onafhankelijk Leven vzw (CIL Flanders, Belgium) The disability sector is subject to a historical change as and from the 1st January 2015. The Flemish parliament has approved the Flemish Parliament decree which will realise this change. The decree of Individual Funding is providing a system in which the budget of the government…
Reasons for my trip to Bulgaria I was invited by ENIL to go and speak at a conference in Sofia on deinstitutionalisation and community-based services, representing the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (EEG). This was one of a number of similar seminars, which the EEG is organising in cooperation…
Across Central and Eastern Europe, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities are excluded from full participation in society—from education and employment, to housing and marriage. Not all countries with inclusive policies have transformed these into meaningful action. Following the European Union’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, member states…
A Statement by the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (EEG) Dublin, 30th January 2014 – The European Union is currently preparing to implement the next seven years of the Structural and Investment funding. The framework put in place for this new programming period represents a historic opportunity to protect…
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…
