15 million disabled in Russia

According to the
Director of the regional office of UNICEF for Central and Eastern Europe and
the CIS, Marie-Pierre Poirier, Russia’s ratification of the convention
demonstrates its desire to do everything possible to accord their rights to
people with disabilities. Now our country must introduce a law which complies with
the norms of international law. As Bertrand Bainvel, head of UNICEF’s in the
Russian Federation, announced, this process must be completed within 2 years.
“This is a serious achievement for all interested parties – politicians, NGOs,
associations, people with disabilities and children, whose voices were heard”,
stressed M Bainvel.

 

According to statistics from the Ministry of
Public Health of the Russian Federation, there are more than 13 million people
with a disability living in Russia (around 9% of the population) , of which
more than 500 000 are children. But only 2% of schools providing a general
education are prepared to take on children with a disability. By 2015 more than
half of all Russian schools must accept children with disabilities within the
framework of the federal programme “Accessible Environment”. UNICEF’s experts
believe that for this to happen it is necessary to equip schools and train
teachers and specialists to work with these children, but also to explain the
benefits of an inclusive education to parents and children. The Federal law on
the ratification of the UNICEF Convention on the rights of people with
disabilities was signed by President Dmitrii Medvedev on 3 May. The convention
provides for social integration and the right of people with disabilities to
participate in civil, political, economic, social and cultural life. The
state-participants of the convention must accept the legal and administrative
conditions which will make discrimination against people with disabilities obsolescent.
Russia was the 111th country to ratify the convention

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