Med. disability conference to be held in Malta
Representatives from 22 Mediterranean countries will be in Malta later this month to take part in an international congress on disability organised by the Italian association Mediterranean Without Handicap with the assistance of Dar tal-Providenza. The...
Representatives from 22 Mediterranean countries will be in Malta later this month to take part in an international congress on disability organised by the Italian association Mediterranean Without Handicap with the assistance of Dar tal-Providenza.
The conference - Towards A New Humanism Ethics And Disability - will be the first following last week's approval of the United Nations' Convention on The Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Malta has already signed.
The conference will address ethics, research, family issues and education related to people with a disability with the aim of creating a Mediterranean which does not present social or physical obstacles for people with a disability.
Dar tal-Providenza director Lawrence Gatt said during a press conference yesterday that the ultimate aim was to create a society that did not present obstacles to people with disabilities.
Conference coordinator Sister Michela Carrozzino said several obstacles were still making the life of people with a disability difficult in Mediterranean countries.
Bioethics lecturer Manuel Agius - one of the speakers addressing the conference - said the time had come to move from words to action.
Prof. Agius said progress in medicine was presenting a number of threats to people with special needs, especially if it allowed discrimination against an unborn child on the grounds of disability.
"The important thing is not to eliminate disability, but to enable the disabled to live as normal a life as possible," he stressed. Mgr Gatt said there was much more awareness about the importance of having an inclusive society in Malta.
This is the third congress organised by the association - the first was held in Tunisia and the second in Portugal. The congress is being held at Le Meridien Phoenicia in Floriana from April 23 to 25. It is open to all institutions, associations and people interested in disability issues.
Further information is available from Dar Tal-Providenza on 2146 2844 or info@dar-tal-providenza.org.