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Human rights in Ukraine – 2007. 21. The Rights of people with disabilities

27.07.2008   

[1]

General observations

The UN General Assembly in December 2006 adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which was opened for signatures on 30 March 2007. The Convention stipulates fundamental standards in ensuring and protecting the rights of people with disabilities.  According to these standards, people with disabilities must be fully integrated into the general social process. The focal point should not be the disability, but the person with a disability who should be enabled, as far as possible, to lead an independent life within society. The Convention came into force on 3 May 2008.

Ukraine has yet to sign the Convention.

Timely internal reforms to fix into place the human rights mechanism proposed by the Convention could help resolve many of the problems of the 2.5 million people in Ukraine with some form of disability.[2]. Incidentally, there are grounds for believing that the official statistics do not reflect the real state of affairs. This is connected with the lack of reliable monitoring of the condition of people with disabilities, as well as the inability, or even reluctance of some people with such disabilities to receive disability status. The latter can be explained by the difficulties of going through medical commissions, as well as by lack of information and other factors. Another reason for the official statistics not giving a full picture is that a whole range of medical diagnoses which restrict people’s abilities do not entitle them to disability status, for example: mental retardation, oncology, HIV, tuberculosis, etc. Also many people as a matter of conviction do not want to receive disability status despite there being a need for this. This is linked with a strong mental barrier in society as regards people with disabilities.

We can describe the current attitude of the State to people with disabilities as being more of an attitude to a “social problem”. The main thing is seen as being ensuring certain social assistance (social protection) in order to resolve most of the problems experience by those with such disabilities.

The State unfortunately does not take an approach based on problems linked with observing human rights.

The main special law in this area “On the fundamental principles of social protection for the disabled in Ukraine” is focused on the “social protection” of people with disabilities (provision of targeted material assistance, ensuring special technical means, and others).  There are however no mechanisms for socialization of a person with disabilities into society.  For example, the Concept of Social Adaptation of People with Mental Retardation[3]  states that “Improvement of social adaptation of people with mental retardation is a current task in the sphere of social protection”.

This lack of mechanisms is confirmed by monitoring.[4].  We can cite as examples these thoughts from people with disabilities[5].

-  “I think that the main basis is individual social assistance (pension, some benefits, etc), and ensuring equal possibilities gets very little attention (largely in the area of barrier-free access).

-  “In Ukraine they don’t’ treat people with disabilities in any way, you’re left alone with the problem of surviving”.

  The monitoring shows that for most people the idea of observing the rights of people with disabilities is associated with pensions, benefits, material assistance, free public transport, and so forth.

  And such fundamental rights and freedoms like, for example, freedom of expression, the right to privacy are either not mentioned at all, or very rarely.

  At the same time, among the key issues as far as people with disabilities are concerned which need to be resolved in the first instance (from a list provided) were the following.

-  Finding a job and employment;

-  Education;

-  Social projection;

-  Rehabilitation;

-  Access of buildings and transport infrastructure

This highlights the declarative nature in many cases of that very social projection. The inclusion in the list of employment and education indicates that people with disabilities need the conditions to earn money themselves and live independently, rather than expecting State guarantees in the needed amount. Other problems named were:

-  “Access of information for people with hearing impairments;”

-  “for example, roads that you can’t go on in a wheelchair. And the lack of lighting in some places”.

With regard to general comments about observance of the rights of people with disabilities, we should mention the following:

There are no systematized principles of legislation on exercising and protecting the rights of the disabled. They need to be separately stipulated in a special law.

Legislation in the majority of cases uses such legal definitions as “is ensured”, “carried out”, and “provided”. There is no concept of “duties of the State with regard to the disabled. For example, in the Law “On the fundamental principles of social protection for the disabled in Ukraine”, the word “duty” is used only in Article “state bodies, enterprises, institutions and organizations (regardless of their form of ownership and management) are obliged to create the conditions for barrier-free disabled access to residential, public and industrial buildings, structures, public transport for free movement in populated areas”.

The concept of “individual mobility” defining a maximum level of independence for people with disabilities is not present in legislation.

Legislation does not envisage the relevant mechanisms and procedure for the application of legal liability for failure to take the appropriate measures for ensuring equal access with others to the physical environment, transport, information and communication, including information and communication technology and systems, as well as to other areas and services open to the population.

There are no norms or provisions regarding situations of risk (armed conflict, natural disasters) and exceptional humanitarian situations, nor for the protection during these of people with disabilities..

There is no legislative backup for educational programmes for people with disabilities on issues of reproduction and family planning.

The subsistence minimum for non-able-bodied persons according to legislation is less than for able-bodied, although the needs of those unable to work are often greater (people with disabilities need special food, clothes, housing). For example, according to Article 58 of the Law “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2008”, the subsistence minimum for an able-bodied person from 1 April is 647 UAH per month, while for somebody unable to work the figure is 481 UAH.

There is no single system or programme for gathering and generalizing statistical data regarding the number of people with disabilities and their needs, which diminishes the effectiveness of social and other programmes.

The issue of observance of the rights of people with disabilities begins with the issue of equality of rights and non-discrimination. Here and later we are not dealing with some kind of special boons which should be provided to people with disabilities but the rights infringements they can experience and discrimination in areas vital for any person such as healthcare and finding a job, etc.

2  Equality and non-discrimination

The Constitution guarantees all equal constitutional rights and liberties, and equality before the law. Article 1 of the Law “On the fundamental principles of social protection for the disabled in Ukraine” states that: “people with disabilities in Ukraine enjoy the full range of socio-economic, political and person rights and freedoms”. It also stipulates that “discrimination of people with disabilities is prohibited and is punishable by law”. At the same time, the very concept of “discrimination” against people with disabilities is not defined in any legislative act.

In a civilized society it is common practice to adopt a policy of “positive discrimination” with relation to people from particular groups who for various reasons are more vulnerable than others. In Ukraine such a policy is substituted by a range of benefits which are obtained by going through procedure which is in itself extremely humiliating. Furthermore the constant fixing of a subsistence minimum for those unable to work as lower than for able-bodied citizens contradicts the principle of positive discrimination.

The overall policy of the State with relation to people with disabilities was described by one of the people who took part in the ongoing monitoring “Discrimination doesn’t exist since society simply doesn’t notice them.”  The examples are legion.

Two main laws, namely “On the fundamental principles of social protection for the disabled in Ukraine” and “On the rehabilitation of the disabled” do not contain separate norms relating to women with disabilities.

During a focus group, the following information was received: “There is a list of rehabilitation services but it doesn’t differentiate between men and women although women need special attention and have certain specific needs in receiving rehabilitation services. So does that mean that a disabled person is without gender?”

The Ministry for the Family, Youth and Sport, State Institute for the Development of the Family and Youth” prepare an annual report “On the position of young people in Ukraine”. There is not a word in this, at least not in the report for 2006, about people with disabilities, as though there aren’t young disabled people.

During the monitoring, surveys showed that there were fairly different answers from public officials of the local authorities and from experts representing specialist nongovernmental organizations and the media. For example, to the question: “Does the law provide equal protection for people with disabilities and those without?” 64% of public officials said either “yes” (45 %) or “probably yes” (19%). On the other hand 44% of the experts representing specialist nongovernmental organizations and the media said “most likely no”, and 13% - said “no”.

The results of the study into experts’ opinions show that there are considerable obstacles in the way of people with disabilities becoming familiar with the norms of legislation.

The results of surveys of people with disabilities and a wider audience are similar. The overwhelming majority (77%) of those surveyed point to the existence of discrimination against people with disabilities. 34% consider this to be definite; 43% answered that it probably exists. 17% of the respondents said that it doesn’t exist, while 6% didn’t know.

3  Freedom of expression and access to information

Freedom of expression and the right of access to information do not of course differ in substance for people with disabilities. However they can only exercise these rights through special efforts on the part of the State since people with disabilities need additional condition.  Furthermore, the state of health of a person needs to be considered, the particular features of their illness, the existence and level of functional limitations, etc

There are no effective norms in legislation ensuring efficient access to information for people with disabilities. There is not enough State support for the media, publishing companies, enterprises and organizations which produce special literature, audio and video recordings for people with disabilities. In preparing, producing and installing means of communication and information, the question of whether they can be used by people with disabilities is not always taken into consideration. 

Services with sign language are partially provided for people with hearing impediments.

Sign language and Braille and other available methods and forms of communication are virtually not used in official relations. It remains a task in the future to “promote the employment of persons with disabilities in the private sector through appropriate policies and measures, which may include affirmative action programmes, incentives and other measures”.[6].  There is a particular situation with sign language. While it is officially recognized, there is virtually no promotion or support for its use.

The Law “On Television and Radio Broadcasting” does not contain clear norms regarding liability for national television channels for the lack of sign language readers. This is applied by using administrative methods through the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council.

4  Inviolability of private life, respect for personal and psychological integrity in equality with others and respect for housing and the family

Studying legislation, you can see that the State so defends public morality that it classifies sexual relations with people who have clear signs of disability as anomalous or deviant forms of sexual behaviour. You can really draw this conclusion if you read Part II “Representation of anomalous and deviant forms of sexual behaviour” of the chapter “Sexological criteria of pornography”, Criteria for classifying printed, audiovisual, electronic and other production, including advertising, as well as messages and material passed on or received through communications lines as viewing pornographic or erotic production[7]: «…ІІ. Representation of anomalous and deviant forms of sexual behaviour … 3) Demonstration of sexual behaviour with people who have clear signs of disability, defects and anomalies, clearly suffer from somatic and / or psychological illnesses …” Thus, even defending public morality, the State should be correct in its formulations.

We received the following comments from experts in response to the question: “Does the State take adequate measures to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities in all issues concerning marriage, the family, motherhood, fatherhood, and personal relations?”

-  “If the parents are disabled, they can put the child into the care of a grandmother not disabled …”

-  “There have been cases when they didn’t want to register the marriage. They didn’t allow a disabled woman to have a child, saying “You’re disabled and need care yourself”.

The experts also note that it is very hard for a family of people with disabilities to adopt a child.

The practice in important spheres such as, for example, education and healthcare, does not guarantee that a child will not be separated from his or her parents if either the child or one of the parents is disabled. We were given the following examples:

-  “The mother had the child taken into a specialized home since she wasn’t able to look after it: a) she didn’t have enough money to feed the child properly; b) she couldn’t carry the child up and down from their third-floor flat where there was no lift”;

-  “Usually parents are forced to part with the child since the present system of education envisages that children with particular types of illness and state of health can only study in specialist school-orphanages”;

5  Access to justice

Legislation does not provide mechanisms for effective access of people with disabilities to the justice system. For example:

  1. people with disabilities do not have state duty charges for examination of cases in court waived[8];
  2. a lawyer is paid for in criminal cases by the State only if there is a special decision from the relevant detective inquiry, criminal investigation unit or court[9];
  3. according to the Law “On the prosecutor’s office”, “… the prosecutor shall independently determine the grounds for representation in the courts, the form that this shall take and can carry out representation at any stage of the court proceedings according to procedure stipulated by procedural law”.[10].  This law does not oblige the prosecutor to represent the interests of people with disabilities in court, and merely entitles them to do so, independently determining the grounds for such representation.

There remains a problem with lack of physical access to court buildings, as well as court hearings with the participation of people with disabilities in the absence of technical opportunities (for example, translation into sign language, provision of certain documents in Braille, and so forth).

6  The right to education

One of the most burning issues is ensuring the right to education of people with disabilities.  Without proper education, they are doomed to dependence on social protection and unable to fend for themselves.

Legislation has brought about a system where most secondary education for children with disabilities is in school-children’s homes, which leads to children being isolated from their parents. The family faces a terrible choice – prioritize the possibility for the child to get an education, or be raised with the family. This is a very difficult moral choice. From the point of view of human rights, both options need to be guaranteed by the State.

Recently, at the initiative, in the main, of nongovernmental organizations, the question of inclusive education has been increasingly raised. . Monitoring showed that the term “inclusive education” is not widespread. Meagre commentary to the effect that “… the education system is not yet sufficiently adapted for including people with disabilities … include a huge number of problems starting with physical access to educational institutions, the lack of proper educational programmes, trained specialists and so forth, and ending with the problem of society’s readiness. Incidentally, with regard to the latter, the State is carrying out virtually no educational work which is perhaps the only way of doing something about this problem.

The following are some examples of problems encountered[11]:

-  “The person had a problem with trying to get into an institute because she’d studied at home and didn’t have a grade from Computer Sciences. Because of that she couldn’t get into the Vinnytsa Polytechnic”.

-  “No possibility of enrolling the disabled child in a kindergarten where they can look after her so that I could go out to work”.

-  “Because of being disabled they refused to accept my documents for applying to an institute”.

-  “The institute refused to accept my documents although I had a paper confirming that I was capable of studying in that institute. They strongly recommend “going to any other institute”, they say that “there’s no place for people like you here”.

-  “They won’t take the child in any educational institution”.

-  “The child has a hearing impairment and cerebral palsy. They won’t accept her in the kindergarten. There’s nowhere where she can learn sign language.”

-  “They won’t admit our disabled child in any educational institution (school, nursery, kindergarten) where there are children without disabilities. We constantly have to collect lots of documents, commissions in various social institutions.”

-  “There’s no access to good and decent education, I feel discriminated against in access to visual information”.

The following are obvious problems:

-  the lack of mechanisms for developing and financing a system of inclusive education;

-  the lack of educational State standards and programmes for mentally retarded children (except children with slight retardation)’

-  opportunity for people with disabilities to exercise their right to higher education;

-  the lack at legislative level of mechanisms of control over the observance by higher educational institutes of the requirements as regards access to the relevant infrastructure. Another obstacle is the existing list of medical contra-indicators, approved by the Ministry of Health;

-  there being no system of training staff, and lack of adaptation of pre-school institutions despite the existence of norms which envisage the creation of special programmes in the field of pre-school education.

There are separate problems for children with psychological difficulties. These begin with not being admitted to pre-school institutions, while in specialized ones there are no specialists able to work with them. A glaring example is that of autism which is recognized by the Ministry of Health, yet there are no approved programmes for working with autistic children and special training for teachers and psychologists.

Access to higher educational institutes is in practice restricted due to the lack of special institutes for young people with such difficulties and a restricted quota of places set aside in ordinary institutes.

  7  Access

Legislation imposes the obligation to provide access for the disabled to various forms of infrastructure on the relevant authorities, enterprises and organizations, which:

-  “are obliged to create”

-  “must envisage”

-  “should equip”, and so forth

Yet there are no mechanisms for imposing liability if the infrastructure is not created or for ensuring such guarantees to people with disabilities.

For example, when drawing up and agreeing design documentation for construction and reconstruction of buildings and other structures, the architectural design scope stipulates that the needs of people with disabilities should be taken into consideration (with ramps, etc). Yet the end result is that 99% of the constructions do not have such infrastructure.

Article 6 § 3 of the Law “On the fundamental principles of social protection for the disabled in Ukraine” stipulates that “people in official positions guilty of infringing the rights of people with disabilities defined by this Law shall bear legally established material, disciplinary, administrative and criminal liability”. We were unable to find any examples where such liability for infringements had been imposed.

At the same time, the law does not envisage either individual or collective responsibility in this area.

At the legislative level norms are fixed on inclusion of people with disabilities into society and participation in the activities of the community. Yet services and public areas are designed for the population as a whole, and are not equally accessible for people with disabilities and do not meet all their requirements.

It should be noted that the State has over recent times been paying more attention to the problems of people with disabilities. This is primarily in creating conditions for barrier-free access to residential and public areas and transport infrastructure.  Civic organizations have played a major role in heightening attention to the need for barrier-free conditions.

However one feels that the authorities far from always approach this task with an understanding of the actual problem. One of the participants in a focus group presented an example: “I arrive at the clinic. How am I supposed to get in? They say “Come next time, there’ll be a ramp”. I came. Yes, they’d put in a ramp. With the help of two doctors (!) I got up the ramp to the registration office, and what then?  The doctor’s on the second floor, the neuropathologist on the third …”

  8  Healthcare, capacity building and rehabilitation

The State has the duty to apply all possible measures to ensure access of people with disabilities to healthcare services, taking into account gender-specific needs, including to rehabilitation linked with state of health. Discrimination is not permitted on the grounds of disability.

The most problematical are issues regarding a proper level of provision for people with disabilities of specific medical services which they need due to their disability. This includes services aimed at reducing the consequences to a minimum and at preventing further development of disabilities, including in the case of children or the elderly. It is especially important that these services be provided at the place where the people with disabilities live, including rural areas.

We should immediately point out one of the problems in legislation which in some issues does not envisage the principles of early diagnosis of conditions which lead to disability. There are no psychiatric diagnostic checks of children of pre-school and school age.

As of 1 January 2008 there were no norms of guaranteeing participation in using services in psychological healthcare, in drawing up policy and developing a legislative base, and planning services in this field.

In 2007 no subordinate legislation in the form of normative legal acts was passed stipulating norms for equipping hospitals with special means, and wards (individual) made suitable for people with disabilities.

There are considerable obstacles in the possibilities of rehabilitation which in turn make the possibility of exercising ones rights problematical. For example, according to the Law “On the fundamental principles of social protection for the disabled in Ukraine” there is a list of duties which the State has taken upon itself which are carried out bearing in mind and individual rehabilitation programme. This is stated in the following norms of the Law:

-  Article 17 (the right to work at enterprises, institutions and organizations, as well as to engage in business or other work not prohibited by law;

-   Article 30 (“residential premises, occupied by the disabled or families where there are disabled people, stairwells of buildings where disabled people live must be equipped with special means and adapted for individual rehabilitation programmes, as well as with a telephone”;

-  Article 37 “Types of necessary medical assistance for the disabled are determined by bodies making medical and social assessments, in individual rehabilitation programmes. Assistance is provided from the Fund of Social Protection for the Disabled”);

At the same time, according to statistics in 2007 126 thousand people were first assigned disability status, yet only 40 thousand were issued individual programmes. Overall, 2.5 million people with disabilities still do not have such a programme.[12].

According to figures from the Prosecutor General’s Office, only 10% of disabled children were included in comprehensive rehabilitation measures. The legal requirements on creating individual programmes for their rehabilitation were not implemented. For example, in the Donetsk and Transcarpathian regions 350 disabled children were able to have such programmes drawn up only after the prosecutor’s office intervened[13].

Among other problems regarding healthcare for people with disabilities the following should be mentioned.

-  The State has not supported or encouraged the transfer of psychological health services to the local level and deinstitutionalization;

-  The criteria for sufficient funding for services for psychiatric assistance have not been set out in legislation. In the Law “On the State Budget for 2007” there was no separate item for this. Nationwide programmes for psychological healthcare have not been approved and there are no references to these in the law;

-  The State has not stipulated aims, tasks and supplementary measures for protecting those with psychological illnesses. There is no extra-departmental control and the precedents of the European Court of Human Rights which equate compulsory hospitalization with deprivation of liberty have not been taken into consideration;

-  Mechanisms have not been prepared for receiving access to medical insurance and the public and private sectors for people with psychological disorders.

-  Legislation [14] envisages the development of beginner and further education for specialists and personnel who provide capacity-building and rehabilitation service, as well as the adoption of State social norms in the sphere of rehabilitation of disabled adults and children. Yet there are no such norms at present as there are also no mechanisms and programmes of study for the relevant specialists.

The practice for establishing and reviewing disability status is sometimes, unfortunately, unacceptable.  Depending on the cause for designating disability status and type of illness, a person has to periodically appear before a review commission and have the status confirmed. This process involves hospital admission, treatment is not voluntary yet without it the person cannot prove their disability status.

Here is one example from our analysis of media publications: “My child has epilepsy and is on the register at the Yushchenko Hospital. He is being treated but there’s no improvement. The illness isn’t curable and they’ve given my son third degree disability status. That’s status where you can work but nobody will give him a job with such an illness. Every year there is a review commission. He has attacks. And when I come with him to the commission they give us a pile of nonsense for a very long time. But if you put 100 dollars or 500 UAH in your passport, then all is well. When will it end?”[15]

The healthcare system undoubtedly needs to review the instructions, regulations and other subordinate legislation regulating the question of provision of healthcare services to people with disabilities. Here is another example from our survey indicating a lack of real understanding of the problem. “My disabled child can’t walk. Two times a year there is a medical examination - we go to the hospital and wait in big queues. The doctors don’t come to my child.”

9.  Work and employment

Studies make it possible to conclude that it is perhaps over the issue of work and employment that there is the greatest divergence in views between the staff of the local authorities and nongovernmental organizations, the media and the actual people with disabilities.  While officials don’t see particular problems in this area, people with disabilities cite examples which suggest limitations in the possibilities for earning a living through their chosen form of work however there are certain standards.  Problems with observance of these were mentioned during the monitoring, as the following examples indicate.

-  Insufficient measures on the part of the State aimed at employing people with disabilities in the public sector and creating incentives for employing them in the private sector.

-  Insufficient measures on the part of the State aimed at providing people with disabilities with effective access to general programmes of technical and vocational orientation, employment services and vocational training;

-  Insufficient measures on the part of the State aimed at ensuring that people with disabilities are reasonably suited to the job.

In terms of legislation, the following problems are of the greatest concern.

-  No mechanisms have been designated for control over ensuring attestation of jobs for the disable. There are also no effective mechanisms for ensuring in practice that jobs for the disabled are set aside within the ratio of 4% of the overall number of employees;.

-  The system for providing tax incentives to enterprises of disabled organizations remains flawed opening the way for the possible use of corrupt setups;

Participants in the monitoring pointed frequently to problems linked with finding work, infringements of legislation on work for people with disabilities. It was stressed that “there is no real protection of home employment for people with disabilities and there are constantly cases where wages are not paid by private employers (for example, working as telephone operators from home phones). And this is with employers often imposing something like slave conditions of work (unrestricted working hours, no days of etc), then they often don’t pay the wages. If the employer doesn’t pay, it’s useless approaching the police, since the minimal amount isn’t enough to initiate a criminal investigation.”

Here is another example from participants in a focus group: “I’ve got 14 years work behind me, however fairly qualified work is a problem since it’s difficult to get there. I was offered work. if you sit behind a computer at their end, there’s one rate, if you do the same work at home it’s a lot les. They offer work at home for 300-400 UAH.  They say you work at home. That will be sufficient. For people with disabilities the rates are much lower. Why? The employers’ whim? Cheap labour?

10  Proper educational and awareness-raising work on the part of the State to best integrate people with disabilities into society

  The State is not taking sufficient measures with regard to:

-  increasing public awareness, including at the level of the family, of disabled issues and strengthening respect for the rights and dignity of the disabled.

-  combating stereotypes, prejudice and bad habits with regard to people with disabilities, including on the basis of gender and age in all spheres of life;

-  promote the potential and contribution of people with disabilities ;

Even at the level of legislation there are no norms for the authorized state bodies to carry out the relevant educational and awareness-raising work in society concerning the attitude to people with disabilities;

Educational work concerns only the disabled people themselves and entails various types of rehabilitation of people with physical or psychological health problems.[16].

It is civic organizations that have taken the necessary functions upon themselves.

In concluding, we would note that those who represent the State should understand that the main thing is not benefits, not temporary periodic attention during public holidays and demonstrations of their own charity in the media.

Recommendations

  1. The best thing would be the inclusion in a special Law the definition of disability in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  2. Sigh and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to it.
  3. Draw up and adopt amendments to legislation in order to bring it into line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Practical mechanisms are need to inculcate key standards in the sphere of protection of the rights of the disabled;
  4. .A Law “On mandatory State social medical insurance is needed
  5. Supplement the Code of Administrative Offences and the Criminal Code with norms which allow for the imposition of fines on the heads of enterprises, institutions and organizations, representatives of the authorities and bodies of local self-government who do not ensure implementation of the legally stipulated norms regarding social, legal and other protection for the disabled (for example, regarding creation of access to the necessary infrastructure, media resources and so forth)
  6. Establish admissible standards for studying in the case of people with physical impairments or psychological disorders which will guarantee their level of development for participation in society.
  7. Set a mandatory quota of places for people with disabilities in higher education institutes, introducing the relevant norms in the Laws “On education” and “On higher education”.
  8. Draw up State educational standards for children with learning difficulties, defining main criteria and categories of psychological disorders, and also adapt study programmes to them.
  9. Allow for the creation in educational institutes of the relevant base for study for those with psychological disorders, sight or hearing impairments (material base, learning material, educational staffing)
  10. Put forward for general discussion the question of revoking the restriction of services in territorial social centres for people with psychological disorders.
  11. Put an end to the practice of restricting or stopping benefits for people with disabilities when adopting the State Budget for the current year in implementation of the judgment issued by the Constitutional Court.
  12. Draw up measures for the Ministry of Health which will envisage incentive mechanisms, including of a financial nature for psycho-social and rehabilitation approaches in treating people with psychological disorders.
  13. Draw up and approve a targeted State Programme on providing psychiatric assistance, envisaging:

-  primary professional examinations by specialists in general education secondary schools;

-  child psychiatrists in central district hospital;

-  financing for free medicine for people with psychological illness at the same level as for all those registered as disabled.

14  Ensure control over compensation from the local budget for carrying out mandatory attestation of jobs for the disabled at enterprises, institutions, organizations within the legally established quota.



[1]  Prepared by member of the UHHRU Board and Head of M’ART [Youth Initiative) Serhiy Burov; М’АРТ lawyer Roman Semeshko, Head of the Department for Organizational and Legal Work of the National Assembly for the Disabled in Ukraine, Larissa Baida; Executive Director of the National Assembly for the Disabled in Ukraine, Natalya Skrypka; and lawyer from the civic organization for blind lawyers, Kharkiv, Oleh Leletyuk

[2] According to statistics from the Pension Fund of Ukraine (www.pfu.gov.ua) As of 1 January 2008 there were over 2.5 million people in Ukraine who, due to physical or psychological difficulties needed special attention from the State. Over 168 thousand minors have received disability status.

[3] Passed by Cabinet of Ministers Instruction No. 619-I from 25 August.

[4] Monitoring of the rights of people with disabilities, carried out by the National Assembly of the Disabled, together with partner organizations and with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. Later in the text referred to as the monitoring .

[5]  Comments are presented with minimum editing

[6] UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

[7] Approved by National Expert Commission of Ukraine on Protection of Public Morality from 20 February 2007, No. 1 № 1.

[8]  Article 4 of the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On State duty”.

[9]  Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 921 from 14.05.1993 “On approving Procedure of the remuneration of lawyers and provision of legal assistance in criminal cases at the State’s expense.”.

[10] Article 36-1 § 5 of the Law “On the prosecutor’s office”

[11]  Where it is not clear from the text whether the person is male or female, we say “she” since the word for person in Ukrainian is feminine (translator)

[12] V. Tursky, Trade Unions and the hope of the blind // the newspaper “Yurydychny visnyk Ukrainy” from 26.01.08, http://yurincom.com/ua/legal_bulletin_of_Ukraine/archive/?aid=2011&jid=257&print=1

[13]  “Protection of the social and property rights of the disabled to constant monitoring from the prosecutor’s office” // Website of the Prosecutor General’s Office 03.12.2007 , http://gp.gov.ua/ua/news.html?_m=publications&_t=rec&_c=view&id=11806.

[14] For example the Sate Programme for Developing the system of rehabilitation and employment for people with limited physical possibilities, psychological illnesses and mental retardation for the period up till 2011 (approved by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 716 from 12 May 2007)

[15] “And I collect my last kopecks” // The newspaper “33rd channel” (Vinnytsa) 23 April 2008 http://33channel.vinnitsa.com/2008/08-05-21.php

[16] Articles 17, 34, 36 of the Law “On the rehabilitation of people with disabilities in Ukraine”.

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