DISABLED people from all over Cyprus yesterday converged on the Presidential Palace and Parliament to submit a memorandum of protest to President Tassos Papadopoulos and House President Demetris Christofias accusing the state of failing to implement measures that would ensure the basic human rights of people with disabilities.
Leaders of Cyprus Confederation of Organisations of the Disabled (KYSOA) gathered outside the Presidential Palace at 10am and outside the House of Representatives at 3.30pm. The representatives from the organisations represented quadriplegics, paraplegics, sufferers of multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy, the deaf, the blind and the Pancyprian Association of parents of persons with mental disabilities.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, KYSOA president Mikis Flourenzos, said:
“People with disabilities do not benefit from anything if the relevant political bodies, the legislative and executive powers, do not have the sensitivity and the political will to go ahead and take positive, legal and other measures to implement the rights of these people and to put into action the equivalent obligations of the state.”
He added: “We want the legislative and executive powers of the state to meet our demands and to move towards the creation of a more acceptable social policy regarding the problems and demands of persons with disabilities in Cyprus.
Flourenzos said he wanted measures that would secure and implement the rights of people with disabilities to participate in the workforce and in production procedures.
“We want the EU directive concerning the employment of persons with disabilities implemented. This directive demands that member states take positive measures for the integration of persons with disabilities in the workforce,” he said.
Other measures include drawing up a record of the disabled and creating a medical card; upgrading plans to provide financial aid to people with disabilities; the immediate introduction of a second Health Ministry doctor to the hospital’s paraplegics ward; annual government subsidies for organisations representing the disabled; the immediate activation and implementation of the People with Disabilities law passed in 2000; the recognition of sign language as the official language of communication of the deaf and the recognition of the Deaf School leaving certificate as equal to a secondary school leaving school certificate.
He pointed out that the disabilities law, which requires equal opportunities for people with disabilities, had never been implemented, even though it did not require expenditure from the state. He said a special fund had been set up for the social integration and rehabilitation of people with disabilities and that all resources would be provided by private initiatives and the private sector.
“No provisions were made for funds to come from the state. However, not even this was implemented,” he said.
Flourenzos said: “With these memoranda of protest we hope to improve the political agenda for people with disabilities within the House, the political parties, the government and local authorities. We hope institutions will be created to support members of our organisations, extending beyond mere financial measures.”
According to European figures, eight to 10 per cent of the population of the EU is made up of people with disabilities, he said.
“That is a large portion of the electoral roll and we demand to be treated accordingly. We have the right to vote and so we want to also be represented correspondingly.”
