Organized by the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, the National Coordinative Body for Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the National Council of Disability Organizations in Macedonia (NCDOM), a formal session was held to observe the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December. The session highlighted the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in all segments of the lives of persons with disabilities. Also, topics were discussed related to this year’s UN theme “Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities towards an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world”, which focuses on persons with disabilities to have access to health care, education, employment and to participate in the community in conditions of pandemic. All this requires an integrated approach, so that persons with disabilities are not left behind and left to themselves.
The Chair of the National Coordinative Body for Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Spase Dodevski, emphasised that the COVID-q19 pandemic, as a world trouble, should not prevent or slow down the integration of persons with disabilities, nor to influence their functionality. He stressed that this Government has changed the course of society and the community towards visibility and acceptance of persons with disabilities in the past period, encouraged problem solving and included persons with disabilities as persons with equal potential in the “One Society for All” Strategy. “We have initiated and implemented reforms that change the society and the attitude towards persons with disabilities. We have created a new social protection system tailored to the citizens. We have implemented a new educational, inclusive system for students with disabilities, in which the environment is equal for every child by introducing system of assistance”, informed Dodevski. He pointed out that by introducing a new system for functional assessment of children and youth with disabilities created according to the International Classification of Functioning, we are directly changing the attitude towards disability as a potential, not a limitation. “Also, accessibility has been integrated into a systematic requirement for any educational institution that aspires to capital investments with budget funds”, underlined Dodevski.
Summarising what has been done so far, Dodevski pointed out the priorities that need more intensive work in the future, such as passing a new Law on Employment of Persons with Disabilities, establishing a functional national register of persons with disabilities that will help in creating disability policies, provision of digital accessibility to the websites of all ministries and Governmental bodies, improving the conditions for obtaining adequate aids for all persons in need, providing higher standards for health care, increasing the number and capacity of the resource centres ad regional bases of all services in education, as well as increased number od day centres and rehabilitation centres.
The representative of the Ministry of Education and Science, Mr. Dusan Tomsic, pointed out that intensive work is being done on the accessibility of the educational institutions, and recently, accessibility has been provided in four secondary and six primary schools. Intensive work is being done on raising public awareness among pupils regarding the rights and needs of their classmates with disabilities. “The educational process is more inclusive with the introduction of the 500 educational assistants in the past period and the increase of the budget for this purpose. We are working to improve the inclusion in secondary schools” underlined Tomsic, adding that there is also a mandatory training for teachers through the Bureau for Development of Education, and investments will be made in inclusive teams in schools.
The representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Mrs. Sofija Spasovska, stressed the process of redesigning and improving the social protection for persons with disabilities in terms of the financial allowances. The social services have also been improved by opening two new day centres in Topansko Pole in Skopje and in Lipkovo, and the day centres in Delcevo and in Tetovo are in final phase. The personal assistance service has become available for children up to 6 years of age, and the licensing of social service providers is being intensively implemented. As she emphasised the process of deinstitutionalisation is ongoing with the relocation of adults with intellectual disabilities to small group homes. “All 15 kindergartens opened in the country are fully physically accessible, and it is envisaged that children with disabilities will have priority for enrolment in public kindergartens. Employment conditions have been improved with a special fund of about 4.7 million euros to support the employment of over 210 persons with disability, and with the adaptation of the working environment and the introduction of working assistants” stressed Spasovska.
The representative of the National Council of Disability Organizations in Macedonia, Mr. Branimir Jovanovski, on behalf od all national organizations – members of NCDOM, presented the views and recommendations for advancing the human rights of persons with disability in number of everyday living areas. He emphasised that this year UN theme “Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities towards an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world” has a purpose to indicate that all mentioned rights of persons with disabilities must be continuously exercised in conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic an the post-COVID situations. The rights of persons with disabilities must be taken into account when planning the measures for protection and prevention of COVID-19. Persons with disabilities and their families also need to be included in the measures taken by the state to mitigate the effects of the pandemic crisis.
The Secretary General of the Republic Centre – PORAKA, Vasilka Dimoska De Jong, MD, promoted the report on the Progress of the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “10 Years Later”. The report is prepared with the purpose to determine what and how much has been achieved in the past decade for advancement of the rights of persons with intellectual disability, as a result of the implementation of the Convention.
