Council of Europe calls on Member States to ensure full inclusion of children and young people with disabilities

On 16 October 2013, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2013)2 on ensuring full inclusion of children and young persons with disabilities into society. Inclusion Europe welcomes the Recommendation which brings the attention of the European governments towards better implementation of the rights of children and young people with disabilities.

Council of Europe calls on Member States to ensure full inclusion of children and young people with disabilities
etr All children should have the same chances.

The Council of Europe is a group of European countries.

They think countries must make sure
that children and young people with disabilities
have the same chances as other children.

They wrote a document about how to make this happen.

On 16 October 2013, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2013)2 on ensuring full inclusion of children and young persons with disabilities into society. Inclusion Europe welcomes the Recommendation which brings the attention of the European governments towards better implementation of the rights of children and young people with disabilities.

As recognised in the Recommendation “to participate and be included in society and to live a quality life is an aspiration for all children and young people in Europe”.  Young people with disabilities, more often than their peers face discrimination while developing their professional and social skills, attaining proper education, getting jobs and building up social ties and sense of citizenship.

With this in mind, the Council of Europe identifies various areas which must be changed in order to ensure that young people with disabilities won’t face multiple discrimination on daily basis and have a change to fully develop their potential.

These aspects are:

  • To promote full belonging to society- supporting deinstitutionalisation in Member States and enhancing the social roles of children with disabilities would help them to increase their self-estimation and enjoy their rights to encourage their inclusion in society
  • To reinforce participation, choice and decision making- providing children with accessible and age-appropriate information would enable them to make informed choices. Moreover, Member States should apply innovative approaches in communication between children, families and carers to make sure they all are involved in decision-making processes.
  • To support the empowerment children and young persons with disabilities- service providers in the Members States should shift from an approach based on care to one based on human rights.
  • To strengthen inclusive education facilitating full citizenship- countries should adopt the the inclusion model in the educational system which adapts to the needs of all learners in order to respect human diversity.

The Council of Europe recommends to the Member States “to listen to children and young persons with disabilities, to empower them and to take account of their views in decisions concerning them, and involve them in decision-making processes according to their evolving capacities in line with Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, namely ensuring that children with disabilities have the right to express their views freely on all matters affecting them”.

You can find a full text of the Recommendation here.

Our work brings the voice of people with intellectual disabilities and their families where decisions about their future are made.

This has always been incredibly important. It is even more so with the Covid pandemic drastic impact on their rights and lives.

Being visible and vocal on issues directly affecting millions of people requires your support. 

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