Tribune. In 2021, France has around 12 million people with disabilities, or nearly one in five French people. However, many of these people remain without a solution to access to their full citizenship and autonomy. Since the “handicap” law of 2005, policies in favor of the inclusion of people with disabilities have multiplied, yet the objectives defined by the text are still far from being all achieved.
When the government abandons millions of people by the side of the road, what levers are left to be heard? The French State is a signatory of international texts which commit it, including the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted and ratified by France in 2010. It is responsible for access to fundamental rights for every citizen. with disabilities.
However, in France, a considerable delay has been taken for years. As a result, people with disabilities see their living conditions deteriorate profoundly. The lack of proposals from the French state leaves them deprived of their rights of access to appropriate support, housing and care. These people, too often excluded from society, are exposed to poverty.
A deterioration of the situation of the disabled
Their right to social protection is not respected. Families, who must take on the support of their disabled loved one, are socially, financially, mentally and physically weakened. People whose pandemic has worsened the situation but who have had little place in political discourse. The observations of the Defender of Rights, published in March 2021, demonstrate once again that the rights of people with disabilities and their families remain hampered.
Faced with the deafening silence that we oppose to the people concerned, in May 2018, the European Forum of people with disabilities and inclusion Europe, supported by a collective of five French associations – APF France handicap, Clapeaha, Fnath, Unafam, Unapei -, submitted a complaint before the Council of Europe. Today he is awaiting the final decision of the European Committee of Social Rights.
The challenge ? A condemnation of France for violating the fundamental rights of people with disabilities. This decision is all the more eagerly awaited given that the European Commission has just presented its new strategy for the rights of people with disabilities in the European Union (EU), whose three main priorities are precisely access to rights, autonomy, equality of opportunity and non-discrimination.
You have 55.2% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.