The European parliament celebrated its second Disability Rights Week on the week from 2 to 6 December. Members of the European Parliament discussed the rights of persons with disabilities in a series of events that looked at a wide range of topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Deinstitutionalisation, Women’s Rights and the need to ensure disability inclusion in EU’s External Action.
Below, you can find a short summary of the week.
Petitions Committee discusses the European Disability Strategy 2021-2030
Our Executive Committee Member, Nadia Hadad, participated in a discussion on the future of the European Disability Strategy with Members of the Petitions Committee on 2 December.
Main points included:
- EU-wide solutions are needed to address the disproportionate impact of poverty, unemployment, abuse and violence in persons with disabilities.
- The growing crisis of persons with disabilities trapped and segregated in residential institutions and facing human rights abuses. A recent report reveals that the number of persons with disabilities segregated in residential institutions has risen to 1.4 million people.
- The need for the EU to step up its actions to protect the rights of persons with disabilities in order to fulfil its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Nadia Hadad lamented the lack of references to advancing the rights of persons with disabilities in the Commission’s political guidelines and the message this sends about the lack of prioritisation of the rights of over 100 million persons with disabilities. She highlighted the urgent need for the European Commission to state its commitment to further actions and flagships within the current EU Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Other notable comments from Members of the European Parliament included:
- European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly expressed her shock at the barriers persons with disabilities face to secure housing and the clear impact this has on the number of people still in institutions.
- MEP Ezcurra Almansa spoke about the particular barriers faced by women and girls with disabilities.
- MEP Miranda Paz expressed the need for civil society working on disability to have access to EU funding to assist them in their mission and activities.
Watch the recording of the workshop “The European Disability Strategy 2021-2030: State of Play”.
Employment Committee underlines the need to ensure independent living
The Parliament’s Employment Committee held a hearing on deinstitutionalisation and independent living on 2 December. Members exchanged views with representatives of several disability organisations, such as the European Network on Independent Living, Inclusion Europe and the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities.
The main conclusions included:
- The lack of reliable data on persons with disabilities living in institutions and the lack of funding for the transition away from institutions in favour of independent living and community-based services.
- The need to better study what the situation for persons with disabilities in institutions looks like and to investigate ongoing and systemic abuse that persons in institutions face within them.
- The fact that there has actually been a global increase in persons living in institutions over the past 10 years in the EU, particularly in 13 of the EU Member States.
Watch the recording of the workshop “Deinstitutionalisation and independent living of persons with disabilities”.
Internal Market Committee discusses Artificial Intelligence and disability rights
The Parliament’s Internal Market Committee held an exchange of views on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and persons with disabilities on 3 December. We were represented by our AI Policy Officer, Kave Noori.
The main conclusions included:
- Governments’ use of AI to screen for fraud in social protection often negatively impacts persons with disabilities.
- As Artificial intelligence is based on statistical reasoning, it favours non-marginalised individuals and often has a negative impact on those who are already excluded, such as persons with disabilities.
- AI systems have the potential to support persons with disabilities if they are used to improve accessibility and quality of life. However, as stated above, the use of AI can often lead to discrimination and social exclusion.
During the meeting, our representative, Kave Noori, expressed concern regarding certain uses of AI in social security, migration and policing that could violate human rights. He referred to reports by Amnesty International about worrying methods used by authorities in Denmark and France to detect potential fraud.
Other notable comments from Members of the European Parliament included:
- MEP Marc Angel spoke on behalf of his colleague Brando Benifei, the IMCO rapporteur on the AI Act. He said that AI can improve accessibility but that it can also discriminate. He explained that the AI Act obliges companies to identify and mitigate bias and assess the impact of AI systems on fundamental rights.
- MEP Alex Agius Saliba talked about the importance of involving of persons with disabilities in the design and development of AI systems and the need to have proper legislation and protection in place.
- MEP Kim Van Sparrentak expressed concerns about automatic content filters on social media. She referred to cases in which images of people in wheelchairs, including stock photos, were removed or made less accessible because algorithms falsely labelled them as promoting self-harm or distorted body images.
Employment Committee discusses fostering employment of persons with disabilities
Our Secretary General Ana Peláez Narváez participated in the Parliament’s Employment Committee hearing on fostering employment for persons with disabilities on 3 December.
The main conclusions included:
- The risk of harassment in the workplace that persons with disabilities, particularly women with disabilities, face.
- The poor implementation of the right to reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities in the workplace.
- The importance of making traineeships and entrepreneurship accessible to persons with disabilities to facilitate entry into the open labour market.
Ana Peláez Narváez highlighted the fact that it is particularly difficult for women with disability to enter – and stay – in the labour market. She also highlighted the often insurmountable barrier arising from the persons with disabilities losing access to the disability allowance and support services when they find employment. This puts persons with disabilities at considerable risk of in-work poverty. She stated that our longstanding demand for an EU Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee would provide some relief and support for persons with disabilities trying to enter the open labour market.
Other notable comments from Members of the European Parliament included:
- MEP Rosa Estaràs Ferragut spoke about the high drop-out rates of children with disabilities in inclusive education settings and the lack of adjustments employers make for their employees with disabilities, even in the public sector.
- MEP Alex Agius Saliba called for binding measures regarding reasonable accommodation in workplaces across the EU.
Watch the recording of the Hearing “Fostering employment for Persons with Disabilities”
Industry Committee discusses how to ensure invlusive digitalisation of public and essential services
Our Deputy Director Alejandro Moledo participated in an exchange of views with the Industry, Research and Energy Committee on digitalisation of public and essential services. It took place on 3 December.
Alejandro Moledo stressed the following ideas:
- Digitalisation can enable persons with disabilities to strive when technology is available, accessible, and affordable.
- 45% of the population still lack basic digital skills, and alternative “offline” means to access public and essential services are disappearing. That is why EDF calls for a legislative initiative at EU level to ensure digital and non-digital means to access public and essential services across countries.
- MEPs need to keep referring to the European Accessibility Act in all files related to digitalisation – this is crucial to ensure digital services are accessible to persons with disabilities.
Other notable comments from MEPs included:
- MEP Smith stressed that digitalisation should not be an excuse to close down physical services and highlighted that the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act should be fully implemented.
- MEP de la Pisa Carrion mentioned the difficulties faced by older people in coping with digitalisation in health, banking and public administration, and underlined the need for human interaction.
- MEP Stefanuta underscored the need for MEPs to be attentive in all legislation and mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities, including in funding programmes, digital policies and sustainability policies.
Watch the recording of the exchange of views on “Digitalisation of public and essential services”.
Transport Committee exchanges views on existing barriers in the field of transport
On 4 December, Members of the European Parliament’s Transport Committee discussed the barriers that persons with disabilities faced while travelling.
Main points included:
- Good practices on train accessibility such as no prenotification to request assistance, accessibility for all types of access needs (including information in sign language) and cooperation with organisations of persons with disabilities.
- Existing challenges, including no-step access between the platform and the train, and divergences in specific treatment and discounts for passengers with disabilities.
- The need to strengthen legislation related to the rights of passengers with disabilities.
Notable comments from MEPs included::
- MEP Metz (Greens – Luxembourg) explained that accessibility is a question of human rights and that the goal is to work together with organisations of persons with disabilities to find the best solutions. She raised the needs to close existing gaps, such as the obligation for 24h prenotification in rail travel.
- MEP Binjac (EPP – Croatia) called for more EU investment on accessibility.
Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee discuss the challenges of women with disabilities
Credits: © European Union 2024 – Source : EP
Two of our Executive Committee members – Secretary General Ana Peláez Narváez, and the Chair of EDF Women’s Committee, Pirkko Mahlamäki – participated in the Parliament’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee hearing on “Addressing the challenges faced by women with disabilities in healthcare, employment, societal participation” on 4 December.
The Chair of the Committee opened the session by highlighting that a relatively high proportion. of women – 29,2% – have a disability.
Ana Peláez Narváez explained that women with disabilities are not taken into consideration in gender equality or in disability policies and noted the failure of the EU to criminalise forced sterilisation. She called on the EU to:
- Recognise forced sterilisation as a crime and provide reparation for victims.
- Provide accessible and specialised services for women and girls with disabilities who are victims of gender-based violence or other forms of exploitation.
- Involve women with disabilities in decision-making.
Pirkko Mahlamäki recommended initiatives to be taken by the European Parliament, arising from the EDF’s third manifesto on the rights of women and girls with disabilities and the EDF’s welcome toolkit to the FEMM Committee.
Notable comments from Members of the European Parliament included:
- MEP Abir Al-Sahlani referred to the need to unblock the Horizontal Equal Treatment Directive, as a tool to hold governments accountable when it comes to disability discrimination.
- MEP Katrin Langensiepen reiterated the failure to criminalise forced sterilisation, forced abortion and rape during the negotiations on the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Watch the recording of the hearing “Addressing the challenges faced by women with disabilities in healthcare, employment, societal participation”.
Other events
Other hearings and events that are part of the Disability Rights Week included:
- International Trade Committee “joint debate on gender and disability rights in trade policies”
- The Agriculture Committee’s exchange of views “Travail et insertion sociale à des personnes en situation d’handicap encadrés par des professionnels de l’horticulture et du jardinage »
- The Regional Development Committee’s “Exchange of views: The role of ERDF in supporting people with disabilities”
- The Culture Committee exchange of views on “Accessibility in the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes”
- The Subcommittee on Tax matters event “National Tax Measures to Support People with Disabilities in the EU”
- Inclusion Europe’s event to launch the new “Inclusion indicators” report”
- The Subcommittee on Human Rights exchange of views on “The need to develop and implement a Disability Action Plan in EU External Action”