Capacity Building Seminar

With the financial support of the European Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination

Madrid (Spain), 19-20 October 2006

 

1. Report on EBU non discrimination expert groups meetings

The participants discussed the outcomes of the four expert meetings which EBU had organised with the support of the European Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination. The meetings had addressed various aspects of the issue of non discrimination and had put forward conclusions regarding the way forward.

a) Capacity building seminar on Non-discrimination and Equal Opportunities for All, Tirrenia, Italy, 1-2 April 2006

A written report had been distributed summarizing the objectives and outcome of the workshop. There were no comments.

b) EBU expert group on rehabilitation, vocational training and employment, Paris, France, 31 March – 1 April 2006

This meeting had been the first of the series of non discrimination workshops. It had been organised by the EBU Working Group on Rehabilitation and Employment within the framework of their meeting in Paris. Two important papers had been submitted by the working group – the EU guidelines on employment and a position paper on supported employment. Both papers were discussed and the conclusions of the Expert Working group were then analysed in the meeting (cf. e) Bratislava.

One of the participants referred to a thorough ONCE study about supported employment carried out at EU level and said he would send a summary.

The participants emphasized the importance of employment for the social inclusion of blind and partially sighted people and recommended that the governing bodies of EBU should maintain employment as the first priority of the organization.

c) Expert meeting on access to technology, Vilnius, Lithuania, 30 June – 2 July 2006

This meeting had addressed and discussed a wide range of important issues relating to accessibility problems for blind and partially sighted people such as internet telephony (VOIP), video telephony, GPS and navigation devices, ticket machines and banking services. Special emphasis had also been given to of other developments like Web access, digital television, digital libraries and E-Learning. To ensure improvements in these fields the workshop participants discussed a number of issues such as public procurement legislation, legislation, ministerial statements which support the right to accessibility and the setting up of standards.

The following views were expressed:
One participant said it was unfortunate that the Declaration of Riga which supports the right to accessibility was issued in PDF. He also mentioned the graphical symbol on websites which were difficult to read.
The ONCE participant felt that the Riga Declaration would not lead to an immediate breakthrough in the field of accessibility. On the other hand there were good initiatives at national levels, for instance in Spain where blind people had access to books in digital format from wherever they live. He mentioned an archive that the ONCE Foundation was building up in cooperation with the EDF. He also suggested to set up a working group to discuss and identify where EBU was standing as the situation was very complex.
The ONCE participant felt that the Riga Declaration would not lead to an immediate breakthrough in the field of accessibility. On the other hand Rodolfo CATTANI who was present at the Riga event said the problems of discrimination arising from the denial of accessibility were far from being solved. The Riga Declaration was an important step forward since it sets a concrete timeframe for the industry to ensure accessibility. So far the EU had relied on voluntary commitments with the industry. There was a growing awareness that this mechanism was not working. Now there is a will to introduce legislation.

 d) Expert group meeting on equal opportunities in mobility and transport, Trieste, Italy, 14-16 July 2006

The workshop had addressed many important issues such as rehabilitation and training. It was noted that In many countries funding for mobility training of blind and partially sighted people was being cut. A further problem is that in some countries acoustic traffic signs are removed which makes safe crossing difficult for blind people. The experts had also drafted a number of valuable conclusions which were discussed by the participants of the Madrid capacity Building seminar.

 e) Expert meeting on strategies to combat discrimination of blind and partially sighted people in the field of access to employment, ICT, mobility and transport, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1-3 September 2006

The purpose of this meeting was to take stock of the other workshop activities. A written report was made available which summarize the outcome of the previous meetings. Issues discussed at the expert meeting in Bratislava included an analysis of the draft UN Convention and an in-depth discussion of the structure of an EBU policy paper which would incorporate the gist of the work done by the workshops.

In the discussion that followed the participants gave their views about the quality of the documents they had received in preparation of the seminar. It was felt that the materials circulated were well structured and informative.

2. The future of EU Funding

2. The future of EU Funding

R. CATTANI, Chair of the EBU Commission on Liaising with the EU (LC) reported about the future EU funding for the European organisations representing disabled people. He explained the structure of the new PROGRESS PROGRAMME and the new regulations that would have to be followed when applying for EU co-funding.

 

 

3. Air passenger rights

The participants discussed very lively the paper prepared by Mr Mokrane BOUSSAID concerning the new regulation on the rights of persons with reduced mobility and disabled people travelling by air. The paper described their impact on blind and partially sighted people. The participants received the paper with appreciation, but some stressed that there was still a lot of work to be done to ensure that the regulation is implemented the way it was intended. It was also stressed that the organisations representing disabled people have an important role to play to achieve this result.

 

 

4. U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

4.1. Presentation of the UN Convention

Mr Colin LOW, President of EBU gave a presentation of the draft UN Convention which had been produced after the meeting of the UN Ad hoc Committee in August (2006). He then summarized the procedure which would lead up to signature and ratification of the Convention and provided a general overview of some aspects of its formal structure. Regarding the procedure C. LOW explained that the new text had been sent to the drafting committee which would scrutinize it to make it consistent with other conventions. After this it would be translated in all official languages. The Convention would probably be adopted by the UN General Assembly on the International Disability Day on 4th December. Once adopted it would be open to signature by Member States. The next step would be ratification which is usually done by Parliament decision. To become effective as a Convention the document needs to be ratified by at least 20 Member States. It would take Member States some time to incorporate the Convention into their legislation.

C. LOW also explained that there is an optional protocol to the Convention aiming at regulating individual (or group) complaints and State enquiries. The optional protocol was a compromise as some countries were strictly opposed to incorporating the complaining procedure into the Convention text.

In the discussion that followed the participants expressed their satisfaction about the positive developments of the Convention, but there was also some criticism concerning the articles on employment and education which did not take into account the interests of blind and partially sighted people. Anyway, the final version seemed to be the best formulation we could get. C. LOW said that the provision might be interpreted in an inclusive or specialized way, depending on the interpretation of the term “environment”.

Commenting on the participation of disabled people in the Convention, RC added that negotiations were difficult because the disability movement was not unified; every group wanted to get its draft through without lowering its sights. He also was confident that the Convention would be adopted, but had qualms as to a quick ratification.

 
4.2. Discussion of a proposal of the EBU Rights Commission on a strategic approach to promoting and monitoring of the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People

The participants went on examining a strategy paper written by EBU expert, Tony ASTON, which had been distributed prior to the meeting. The strategic approach EBU should adopt had been discussed at the meeting in Bratislava in September where it had been suggested to derive from the Convention a list of those rights which specially concern blind people, create and maintain a database on the EBU Website that provides information about the extent to which national legislation complies with the provisions of the Convention, and finally to establish a network of experts who are responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention.

Many participants gave their view on how to carry out the strategic actions.

 

 

5. The Riga Ministerial Declaration and the 2008 European Initiative on eInclusion

R. CATTANI gave a presentation on the Ministerial Conference held in Riga on 12 and 13 June (2006). He stressed that the Declaration was very important due to its clear language and the fact that never in the past we had seen a political statement which committed itself so much to taking the needs of disabled people forward.

In the discussion that followed the participants agreed that this evolution was positive. Some however expressed the opinion that implementation might be difficult.


C. LOW closed the seminar thanking all participants for their active involvement and ONCE for their organisational support.