The Center for Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities launched the first alternative report on the implementation in Moldova of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The report contains findings and a set of recommendations for the Government. It was compiled with the participation of 25 civil society organizations that highlighted the most often violations of the rights of persons with disabilities, IPN reports.
Among the main conclusions of the report is the fact that there are no official statistics on the types of disabilities in Moldova, but only information about the disability degree (medium, accentuated and severe) and the causes that led to disability. “The Republic of Moldova has yet a lot to do to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities are respected. The existing normative framework is favorable, but there are no mechanisms for implementing it. The most acute problems that the state is to solve in the near future refer to the observance of the political rights, the right to legal capacity and the rights to education, labor and accessible conditions for persons with disabilities,” said the executive director of the Center for Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Vitalie Mester.
The report says the state annually spends by 13.5 million lei on social welfare, but the social inclusion costs are covered partially or not at all. Only 4% of the public buildings in Chisinau provide wheelchair access and only 10% of the persons with disabilities have access to the labor market. “All the persons with disabilities are affected by the lack of accessibility. It’s not only about physical access, but also about the access to information and participation in social life,” said the executive director of the Association “Motivatie” Igor Meriacre.
The document also reveals deficiencies in providing mobility equipment, compensatory medical and technical devices, sign language interpreters for persons with hearing impairments and accessible teaching aids for persons with visual and mental impairments.
The authors of the report recommend setting up a technical research center for adjusting motor vehicles with manual guidance systems, increasing public financing for training and employing a sufficient number of sign language interpreters, admitting students with disabilities to high school without testing them and raising the social allowance for persons with severe and accentuated disabilities.
The alternative report will be accessible for consultations until December 17. In the period between August 15 and September 2, 2016, Moldova will be questioned based on the state report and the alternative report of civil society within the 16th session of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The initiative was implemented by the Center for Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities within the project “Increasing the level of participation in the life of society of persons with disabilities and of NGOs that represent them” , which is financially supported by the SOIR Representative Office in Moldova.
