Siarhei Drazdouski: Everyone can observe the rights of the people with disabilities

On March 28 the representatives of the civil society gathered in Minsk to sign the Memorandum “On accession to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.

Belarus couldn’t accede to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for more than four years. Under the signing of the convention about 5 hundred thousand of the disabled living in Belarus could have more rights and opportunities.

Siarhei Drazdouski, the coordinator of the "Office on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities", told EuroBelarus Information Service that human rights fighters decided not to wait until the government makes a decision to sign the Convention. Office on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and UN Representative Office in Belarus initiated the information campaign “Sign with your heart”.

“TheUN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into effect in 2008. It is signed by 143 countries; and Belarus is among the few remaining European and CIS countries which didn’t sign the document. The government of the country announced yet again that the Convention will be considered at the autumn session”, - Siarhei Drazdouski says.

Meanwhile, persons with disabilities cannot use social, political and civil rights in the degree that is available for all the other citizens.

“Thus, we decided to initiate the signing of the Memorandum “On accession to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” ourselves, without waiting for the decision of the state bodies”, - tells the coordinator of the "Office on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”. - The Convention gives new interpretation to the notion of disability, i.e. it incorporates the concept of civic rights of the disabled, and any citizen of the country as well as any organization can take upon themselves the responsibility to observe or not violate these rights.

Later anyone willing will be able to join the campaign at the webpage of the Office on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Memorandum can be signed both by individual persons and by the organizations. According to the initiators of the project, there are no limitations for those who are willing to join the campaign.

“The whole point is that everyone who signs the Memorandum takes upon himself the responsibilities to follow the provisions of Convention on non-discrimination, respect of the personality and dignity of persons with disabilities, on understanding their rights, - Siarhei Drazdouski explains. – As well as promises to follow the international encouragement of rights of persons with disabilities, rule out discriminative actions in their work”.

“We have decided to drop the large-scale actions. If we talk about everyone’s right, we have to enable every individual to take participation in it independently, without waiting for the communities and the state to arrive at some conclusion for him, - he says. – We want solidarity, we want people who accept the provisions of the Convention tell their friends about it, thus spreading their values”.

However, signing of the Memorandum doesn’t mean that the human rights fighters step back in promotion of Convention on the rights of the disabled. “We will be working with the government at the level of experts and lobbyists, - says Siarhei Drazdouski. – We will continue our cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security as well as with the Ministry of Education so that to take some steps that would bring Belarus closer to the signing of the Convention”.