2018 was an extremely eventful year for the Independent Living in Ireland. Last July, we changed our name from Centre for Independent Living (CIL) to Independent Living Movement (ILMI) to reflect our all-Island approach. Our vision: An Ireland where disabled persons have freedom, choice and control over all aspects of their lives and can fully participate…
In November and December 2018, the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) piloted the Personal Assistance Checklist (PA Checklist) – a new tool for assessing personal assistance schemes from the perspective of independent living. The PA Checklist was created by ENIL, as part of the project ‘User-Led Personal Assistance in the European Union: A Critical…
In view of the upcoming report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in Spain, ENIL and FEVI (Federación Vida Independiente) prepared a submission on Article 19 CRPD – the right to live independently and to be included in the community. The Committee on the Rights of…
Decree-Law No. 129/2017 of October 9(1) embedded the so-called “Independent Living Support Model” in the Portuguese legislation. Even though the model has not been applied yet, it has already been amended by Decree-Law No. 27/2019 of February 14(2). This legislative scenario, which does not even respect basic Personal Assistance requirements, represents an abusive appropriation of…
Our goal to set up the system of Personal Assistance in Hungary has come to a very important stage. On February 14th, we organised a panel discussion for activists and professionals to come together and contribute to form our strategy. The Independent Living of persons with disabilities is what we envision in the long-term future….
The struggle for personal assistance has been long and very hard in Slovenia. Our association was a pioneer and for many years we were lonely riders who have been fighting for personal assistance according to the ENIL principles. Our vision of personal assistance as a basic human right, not just as new social right, was…
2019 is a special year for the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) – we are celebrating our 30th Anniversary! To mark this occasion, we will be taking stock of what has happened during this time, speak to the some of our founders and look at what we can do to make the movement stronger…
At the end of 2018, the Independent Living Association (Associazione Vita Indipendente ONLUS) held three protests for independent living in Florence, Italy. The protests took place on 20 and 30 November, as well as on 18 December in front of the Regional Council of Tuscany (which is something like a regional parliament), and received significant…
This January, a one-man committee submitted a proposal about the Act on Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments to the Swedish government. The proposal entails such severe changes to current rights that – if implemented – big institutions will be built in Sweden again. Above all, there are three suggestions that would jeopardise…
2018 was a difficult year for ENIL – just before the year began, we learnt that we had lost the European Commission operating grant, which we had for a number of years. So, at the beginning of the year, we had to say goodbye to our Director Zara Todd, who had joined us just a…
In the November issue of the Newsletter we wrote about the protest of Eduardo Jorge in front of the Portuguese Assembly on 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Eduardo, who lives in a nursing home, is fighting for his right to choose where and with whom to live. During the protest, he…
How to set up the system of Personal Assistance in Hungary for persons with disabilities In the Hungarian disability movement, great work was done by many disabled persons and their allies, for example György Könczei, Pál Gadó, Gábor Zalabai, László Hajdi (ZALABAI P-NÉ 1997). Hungarian IL Centers (ÖÉK) were organized in the ‘90s with the…
Building partnerships for the implementation of SDGs and the CRPD As part of this year’s European Disability and Development Week (EDDW), ENIL organised an event on Promoting Independent Living through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was part of a series of events, addressing disability issues in the context of development cooperation, coordinated by the International…
It is normal to say that we are still far from Sweden, but we are already very close to Sweden in some areas. At least in Alytus, Lithuania and at least regarding personal assistance services. Is it hard to believe? It is possible, when you want and try to connect the community to a common…
Fifteen years after the first Independent Living Congress in Tenerife, Spain (2003), it was time to reflect on the experience of over 15 years of work – the successes and the mistakes – and the effect these changes have had on people’s lives. ENIL was pleased to be able to support the Congress, which was…
This week, ENIL was contacted by Eduardo Jorge, a disabled activist from Portugal, who asked us to share information about his protest in front of the Portuguese Assembly on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on 3 December. Eduardo lives in a nursing home and decided to protest in order to…
On 22 – 23 November, the Albanian Disability Rights Federation organised a conference entitled “Translating generalities of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into tangible actions – Strengthening networks and advocacy”. The event was organised in cooperation with the European Disability Forum and UNICEF, as part of a project they have been…
On November 8, Centre LIVING UPRIGHT (CLU) brought almost all the people who contributed to the personal assistance service in Novi Sad together in order to discuss its outcomes. Unfortunately, personal assistance in Novi Sad is still a project-based service, funded through the lottery funds, with the amount which cannot be predicted until the end…
The second annual meeting of the Disability High Level Group took place in Brussels on the 25th October 2018. Organised by the Disability Unit at DG Employment, the meeting was attended by representatives of the Member States (from the Ministries or permanent representations in Brussels) and EU level NGOs involved in promoting the rights of…
Veronika Kallandar, an active member of the Swedish left party and the Swedish Independent Living movement, left her wheel prints and voice echoing in the European Parliament this month, when she spoke on Human Rights of disabled people and the right to personal assistance for all disabled citizens in Europe. The event, titled “Human Rights:…
