Inclusion Europe member Dincat fights for the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities in Spain.
They are asking the Spanish government Persons with intellectual disabilities may Violent actions or pushing someone into doing something More should be done to help children The United Nations Convention on the Rights The government must make sure |
Inclusion Europe member Dincat, Catalan Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, is speaking out following an alleged sexual assault of a young woman with intellectual disabilities in an institute in Mataro. You can watch a video of the girl’s mother being interviewed here (in Spanish) for background on the case. Dincat is openly condemning the government’s failure to detect and prevent the situation.
Dincat is seizing this publicised opportunity to highlight the failures of the existing protocol developed by the Departments of Education, Health and Labour, Social Affairs and Family, to demand improvement. Dincat urges special emphasis to be put into the protection of particularly vulnerable people, such as persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities. In order for the revisions to be inclusive and protect everyone they would like students with special needs to be specifically addressed in the new regulations. In order to devise effective measures, their needs must be tailored to.
Dincat is not asking for recommendations, they call for new measures in the form of concrete action plans that will be implemented. Whilst understanding the complexity and sensitivity of revising sexual abuse regulations, people with intellectual disabilities are of course full citizens, like anyone else, therefore their rights must be guaranteed and protected by the government. Dincat highlights Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which refers to protection from exploitation, violence and abuse: “States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, educational and other measures relevant to protect persons with disabilities”. The support of this document means the issue goes beyond the government’s willingness to cooperate; instead it is a matter of respecting human rights convention. The second paragraph of Article 16 states that governments must take all appropriate measures to prevent abuse, adequate support, information and education must be provided how to recognise, report and prevent such instances.
Dincat is prepared to move forward in the fight against exploitation, improving mechanisms to address situations of abuse of persons with intellectual disabilities by working together with government administrative departments.
You can read Dincat’s article here (in Spanish).