adopted by the 4th European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities – Brussels, 6 December 2017
This year, the European Disability Forum (EDF) celebrates its 20th anniversary. The delegates to the 4th European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities, representing the European disability movement meeting in Brussels on 6 December 2017, adopted this Resolution to follow up on the current European Disability Strategy 2010-2020.
The European Union (EU) is a Party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), as well as 27 of its 28 Member States. Article 4 of the CRPD requires State Parties ‘to adopt all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures for the implementation of the CRPD’.
In 2015, the EU received from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) its Concluding Observations. The CRPD Committee recommended the EU ‘to adopt a strategy on the implementation of the CRPD, with the allocation of a budget, a time frame for implementation and a monitoring mechanism.’Persons with disabilities amount to 80 million people in Europe (16% of the European population). According to current demographic trends, the number of persons with disabilities will increase from 80 million to 120 million by 2020. Persons with disabilities at risk of social exclusion include women, children and youth, mothers of children with disabilities, older people, people in need of more intensive support deafblind people, persons with psychosocial, intellectual, cognitive and multiple disabilities, homeless people, ethnic minorities and refugees, LGBTI people, people of different religion and belief, who do not participate on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.
Building on the achievements of the current European Disability Strategy 2010-2020, a follow up Strategy is required so as to ensure the continued and harmonised implementation of the CRPD both by the EU and by the Member States.
Full EDF Resolution on the European Disability Strategy 2020-2030 (PDF)
EDF Resolution on the European Disability Strategy 2020-2030 (Word)