The director of HANDIKOS, Afrim Maliqi, states that he is optimistic that with declaring of 2022, as the year of people with disabilities, there will be an advancement of the rights of this category of society. However, he says he does not expect miracles, as not all problems can be solved within a year.
Lack of access for people with disabilities continues to be one of the main problems they face, which Maliqi says he expects to address this problem this year.
The activity calendar for this year contains a set of activities that focus on health, justice, security, education, education, employment, access, social welfare, culture and sports.
The director of HANDIKOS, Afrim Maliqi, says for KosovaPress, that with declaring of 2022, as the year of persons with disabilities, the institutions are committed to work on advancing the rights of persons with disabilities.
“They will be mobilized in order to raise issues related to people with disabilities, the implementation of current legislation and more. When I say and more, it means that other laws and bylaws should be issued with the main purpose of fulfilling the rights of persons with disabilities, compared to the situation or other international documents or practices both in Europe and in the world. This is directly related to the inclusion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Constitution of Kosovo or its amendment,” he said.
Maliqi says he is optimistic that the government will fulfill all the commitments it has made with the declaring of 2022, as the year of people with disabilities, but that he says that he does not expect miracles, as not all problems can be solved within one year.
“We do not expect for a miracle because it is only a year and not all issues can be fixed in a year and for this reason during the last year when we met and when we worked with the ministries for the workshops we organized, we have said please take responsibility only for those things which you can accomplish over a year, not more. Those ministries have been committed and the government has taken into account the commitment of the ministries for this calendar of these activities of these commitments. Now the expectations are there, we have hopes, but according to these promised activities that I mentioned, and of course other works will be done, but not everything can be fixed”, says Maliqi.
He points out that lack of access, prejudice and lack of adequate legislation are the reasons why people with disabilities have not been included in society so far.
“There are three reasons why people with disabilities have not been included in our society so far. The first is the prejudices that exist in society towards people with disabilities who cause fear, isolation of people with disabilities because there is still a need to raise awareness, although in terms of self-awareness we are doing pretty well. The second issue is the legislation which does not take into account their rights as rights, not needs but as rights, the right to education, the right to health services, the right to be provided with assistive devices, the right in language communication or sign language interpretation, the right to employment. Last but not least, the inadequate environment, free movement or access,” he said.
Regarding the lack of necessary infrastructure for people with disabilities, Maliqi says that it is the main obstacle that this category faces. He even says that those who suffer the most from lack of access are children with disabilities.
The situation is worse than in schools, according to him, in public universities, where he says that none of them meet the conditions for people with disabilities.
“Most schools do not have a bathroom or toilet left with an elevator, where always because of a student with disabilities the whole class is on the first floor. We must, however, relate it to the issue of education that education is not just access or infrastructure, which hinders families or makes it difficult for families to include their children in education, but, there are some other issues, it is the health, it is the appropriate auxiliary equipment, it is the economic situation of the family, the inadequate transport, then the support assistant in the schools, it is a complexity that makes it difficult for the families to send children to school. In terms of secondary or higher education, it is a really catastrophic situation in terms of access, where no faculty at the University of Prishtina meets the access standards for students with disabilities, none at all,” he said.
On December 3, the Government of Kosovo has decided that 2022 will be the year of persons with disabilities in order to advance the rights of persons with disabilities.
