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EU agency says disabled rights not respected

07 June 2012, 09:50 CET
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(VIENNA) - Europe needs to do more to recognise and respect the rights of the continent's 80 million people with mental disabilities, an EU rights agency said Thursday.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights is publishing its findings from two reports during a Copenhagen conference.

"The fundamental rights of people with disabilities are lagging behind legal guarantees, particularly as austerity measures begin to bite," the agency's director Morten Kjaerum said in a statement.

The agency wants to promote greater inclusion into society of people with mental handicaps, instead of their being placed in institutions, where they can be stigmatised or isolated.

"For independent living to be successful, deinstitutionalisation needs to be coupled with social policy reform in education, health care, employment and personal support options," the rights group said in a statement.

According to the reports, mentally handicapped people have few real job opportunities and are heavily dependent on public assistance.

The United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which took effect in 2008, has been ratified by 21 EU member states. It says that people with disabilities need to be given equal access to all fundamental human rights.

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights


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