Oriana Robertson
September 24, 2010
2:58 pm
The mistreatment of persons with intellectual and mental disabilities usually goes under the radar in terms of human rights violations. Around eighty-five countries in and around Europe have agreed to abide by the United Nation’s International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention intentions insure that persons with disability maintain and enjoy their rights, dignity, and equality under the law.
Croatia, specifically, has recently been reprimanded for its poor job enforcing the provisions of the Convention. It was among one of the first countries to agree to be bound by the convention two years ago. Recently, the United Nations and the European Commission has confronted Croatia about its fallacies and expects a report documenting significant progress in implementing the Convention.
The Convention requires countries to honor the legal capacity, or ability to make important life decisions and exercise basic rights, of disabled persons. In some cases, Croatian adults are being denied the right to get married, choose where to live, and vote. They are being placed in long-term institutions rather than community-based residences. These institutions lack support, space, and deprive mentally disabled persons of privacy and dignity by making them vulnerable to mental or physical abuse. Between 7,000 and 9,000 persons with disabilities remain in these isolated institutions rather than in a community where they can receive community support and enjoy a better quality of life as proven in other areas in Europe.
Considering Croatia was one of the first to agree to the Convention, it should have upheld its decision with pride and dignity. The country confidently made empty promises that were so valued by the up and coming reform group. Also, the fact that Croatia has only two hundred and fifty community groups while over five thousand remain in institutions implies that Croatian officials find it convenient to separate disabled beings rather than accommodate the differences.
Another weakness on Croatia’s part was unwisely implying that it valued the Convention and its provisions. On top of the lawful requirements of the Convention, it should require countries should be active in supporting disabled persons. Examples of this are funding community housing specialized for disabled persons and educating nondisabled persons about their disabled neighbors.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/05/03/croatia-unfulfilled-promises-persons-disabilities
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/23/croatia-locked-limited-lives
3 comments:
According to what you posted, Croatia was a little forward, or presumptuous in the case that the country made a promise it didn't immediately act on. A lot of the time, people tend to talk ahead of themselves, in case, its a whole country. You posted that the U.N. and the European Commission wants a positive report from Croatia. Well, perhaps Croatia will come around. I mean, Croatia probably doesn't want to stand the embarrassment forever. Anyway, disabled people should be treated the right kind of way, like you posted: more respect needs to be given to them as humans. If a person has the mind to desire a good home, then, why deny it to him or her--it wouldn't be fair. Also, why can't a disbled person be married? It's like the country of Croatia is saying that the disableds' capacity to love doesn't exist, which is very degrading to another human. As for voting, if a disabled person can decide for him or herself why a person should or shouldn't be put into office, and can make that decision clear to others either in speech or in writing, then the disabled person can vote. What is disabled, really? :D If you're talking about cerebral palsy, then there was guy I saw on T.V. who had a real bad case of it. He couldn't stop swingin' his right arm around and his face was stuck in a certain way--but he was a pretty good stand-up comic. So what, put him in an institution? Not fair. In church, I heard about a pastor who had parkinson's disease. He couldn't do some things on his own, like dress or walk. Despite that stuff, he wanted to preach the gospel in different parts of the world, like Portugal. Against the odds, he studied Portugese at a college. Finally, he was ready to preach in Portugal. He had partners to dress him in a shirt made of velcro because of his condition, and he was wheelchaired to the platform somewhere in a field in Portugal in front of a hundred people. His partner placed the pastor's Bible in his hand and the pastor raised it up and said, "This here is all I'll ever need!" He probably said that in Portuguese. So, disabled or not, humans are to be respected. As you had posted, when Croatia gets on track again, it should raise funds for community housing. That, and they also should be continuously exposed to normal acting people.
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