Human Rights

Catalina Fipper and Nelly Hölter
Master Students in Ethnic and Migration Studies at Linköping University, Sweden.

Project 81

As with the USA, the concept of disabled people controlling their own support system started with a small group of disabled people being given money to employ their own personal assistants to live a fulfilling life in the community. But this time the group were not university students, but residents of a residential home in Hampshire, England. Project 81, the International Year of People with Disabilities, appealed to the right-wing neoliberal government at that time, which favoured self-help and self-responsibility for one’s own welfare. Here, disabled people were being taken from dependency on others in expensive care homes, to the independence of their self-directed support in the community.

In 2012, the Polish parliament, which had a majority of the centrist parties, ratified the CRPD. Despite this, nothing was done to make personal assistance available and regulated at central level. Until 2019, this kind of support was mainly organised only in Poland's largest cities. This was done by NGOs, not controlled by persons with disabilities. The services were funded by European Union funds or city budgets. A report prepared by independent researchers, commissioned by the government's Office for Persons with Disabilities shows that between 2016 and 2020, personal assistance was not implemented fully in accordance with the CRPD and General Comment 5 anywhere in Poland. There was a lack of regulations specifying in which activities the assistant could support the service user. Interruptions in the implementation of services, even lasting several months, were frequent. The users could not decide who would become their personal assistant. Service hour limits were not tailored to individual service users' needs. Children and young people were not able to access personal assistants. In practice, people living in rural areas and small towns were not able to access these services.

Abstract

Independent Living Institute in cooperation with Funktionsrätt Sverige (The Swedish Disability Rights Federation)

Presenters at the Tenerife Conference on Independent Living 2004 with Judy Heumann in the first row

Judy Heumann has left us.

The worldwide Independent Living and Disability Rights Movement has lost its most outspoken, powerful, and tireless spokesperson. Judy Heumann passed away on March 4, aged 75.

Föreläsare vid första europeiska Konferensen om Independent Living, Teneriffa 2004 med Judy Heumann i första raden

Judy Heumann har lämnat oss.

Den världsomspännande rörelsen för Independent Living och funktionsrätt har förlorat sin mest elokventa, kraftfulla och outtröttliga talesperson. Judy Heumann avled den 4 mars, 75 år gammal.

 This document was co-created in May 2022 by Teodor Mladenov (University of Dundee), Jim Elder-Woodward (Scottish Independent Living Coalition), Mari Siilsalu (Independent Living Institute), Ines Bulic Cojocariu (European Network on Independent Living), Nadia Hadad (European Network on Independent Living), and Lilia Angelova-Mladenova (European Network on Independent Living).