Personal Assistance: Key to Independent Living as illustrated by the Swedish Personal Assistance Act

Invited paper presented at Colloquium “CRPD and EU Structural Funds: The way ahead for Independent Living”, United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner, Europe Regional Office, Brussels 7 May 2012

Adolf Ratzka, Ph D
Independent Living Institute

I am with the Independent Living Institute, a Sweden-based think-tank for policy formulation in the field of disability where we attempt to formulate p

Seminarium 25:e januari 2012 med Esther Sivan, VD för Bizchut – Organisationen för Mänskliga Rättigheter till Personer med Funktionshinder i Israel.

I samarbete mellan Independent Living Institute (LI) och Diskrimineringsombudsmannen (DO).

Klicka på länken för att gå till transkribering och översättning av seminariet.

The October 1  2011 article Dismantle Europe's inhumane institutions in the daily newspaper Göteborgsposten urges European countries to provide people with disabilities with personal assistance and assistive devices, rather than relegating them to institutions.

According to the Swedish Members of the European Parliament at least 1.2 million people live in institutions in the EU and Turkey, which they consider to be contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Briefly about my background. I have lived and worked in Sweden for 37 years.  Prior to that I was living and studying in California for 7 years. I was born in what is today the Czech Republic. After WW II my family, as part of the German minority, was forced to move to Germany. There, at the age of 17 I contracted my disability. Thus, as a person with a disability I have lived in Germany, the United States and Sweden. I might add that in June this year I chose to apply for Swedish citizenship.
 
In my presentation I will talk about double discrimination on the grounds of disability and ethnic background. My comments are based entirely on my own experience as a person with a disability living as an immigrant in another country.
 

Otillgänglighet är diskriminering!

2010 gick tiden ut för Regeringens funktionshinderplan, Stockholm skulle vara världens tillgängligaste huvudstad och ett medborgarskap på lika villkor skulle äntligen vara verklighet för personer med funktionsnedsättningar. I samband med Marschen för tillgänglighet 2010, STIL – Stiftarna av Independent Living i Sverige, Kulturhuset och projektet Ta Plats arrangerade Independent Living Institute konferens, seminarum och mingelkväll i Kulturhuset. Vid evenemanget delade vi ut Anti-Apartheidpriset i Sverige till Mats och Kjell Winberg.

M. Miles, West Midlands, UK.

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