French disability policy needs improvements

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According to INSEE’s Job survey for 2013, 2.4 million people living in a mainstream environment report that they receive an official disability or loss of autonomy card. Like everyone else, they are rights-holders and their rights must be recognized and enforced. Yet in this area, France has some progress to make.

 

In 2010, France ratified the United Nations Convention relating to rights of persons with disabilities. The principles set out in that text are intended to promote inclusion: non-discrimination; accessibility; participation in society; respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities, etc … You can recognize the validity of these rights, their application is not easy in practice. Within two years after ratification, France had to be accountable to the United Nations and describe how it responds to different articles of the Convention. That report, delivered with a four-year delay, highlights some failures.

 

When reading the report, one can question the French political commitment to guarantee effective human rights for disabled people. Some articles of the Convention are subject to misunderstandings or minimalist approach in practice. Other measures mentioned are only projects, not concrete actions. And when there is no public policy to implement a particular article, then the report lists isolated good practices which don’t represent state policy.

 

Thus, in order to show the reality of the implementation of this text, some associations, among which Unapei, are currently drafting a report from their viewpoint. European Commissioner Nils Muižnieks also sounded the alarm bell through a report released on February 17, 2015. He condemned, among other things, the fact that 20,000 disabled children are excluded from school, the exile of thousands of disabled people towards Belgian institutions better able to meet their needs, the delay of France in terms of access to public places and means of transport. It also puts the finger on the social isolation of people with disabilities. Still according to the INSEE’s job survey for 2013, the unemployment rate of the persons with an administrative recognition of a disability is 18%; it is double the overall unemployment rate in France!

 

Fortunately, private initiatives are conducted in favor of the inclusion of disabled people in society. Our members OCIRP and Chorum are part of it.  For example, in 2016 and in partnership with France Bénévolat, they call to initiatives on “the place of people with disabilities in voluntary commitment.” The goal is to generate interest and commitment from associations on the issue of volunteers with disabilities and to promote their inclusion.