The disabled have become a part of the national agenda for discussion all over the world, not least in Malta. Ignored for ages, their situation has become acknowledged for what it is. They start with a disadvantage in life, but that tends to be made worse by those who do not recognise them as people with potential and rights as much as everybody else. Different rights and potential, but potential and rights all the same.
As this attitude diminished, though it is by no means extinct, society recognised that the disabled see themselves as, more than in a plight, facing a challenge. A challenge to maximise their potential to the full.
To do that they need society’s awareness. Above all they need the grit and determination to keep insisting for their rights. These characteristics have led to recognition of the rights of the disabled on a global basis, with their issue reaching the United Nations.
The latest major development was the enactment by the UN of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, and an optional protocol.
As the chairman of the commission for persons with disability, the indefatigable Joe Camilleri, reminded in Saturday’s Times of Malta, the convention and its optional protocol came into effect in Malta a year ago (November 9), following ratification in October.
That was a culmination of the past 25 years or so in which the disabled had been brought to the forefront, largely through the militancy – for militancy it was – of Camilleri himself.
The convention offers governments a plan of action, a modus operandi which did not exist in such completion before. Needless to say, it would remain a dead letter unless governments take ongoing action to abide by and implement the convention.
The disabled feature in Malta’s annual fiscal budgets regularly, and did so again this year. The Finance Minister announced in his Budget Speech that immovable property – residence – left to the benefit of a disabled person would henceforth be exempt from stamp duty. The measure had been lobbied for a number of years by parents and other careers of disabled individuals. Such people are in the forefront in the discussion about the disabled.
That is why parents and carers expect the government of the day to provide for the needs of the disabled
Next to the disabled themselves they, above all, know what it takes to address and whenever possible overcome the challenges facing the disabled. They give unbounded love to those they care for, including the love that accepts to let them go as far as possible to follow their own inclinations and not remain too dependent on others. Parents and other carers do that in the knowledge that they will be gone someday and their disabled loved ones will face a tougher environment. That is why parents and carers expect the government of the day to provide for the needs of the disabled.
One such need is detailed in the convention. It is about living independently and being included in the community. In order to be in line with the convention –Camilleri pointed out on Saturday – developments in the area will need to provide community-based supported accommodation, which allows disabled people the ability to exercise the right to choose where they live, with whom and with what living arrangements. This entails a range of different services that suit different disabled people’s wishes and support needs.
As clearly put as can be, this is not a new point. Unfortunately it was not addressed in the Budget for 2014, to the dismay and even anger of parents of disabled individuals. It is a sore point for the broad disabled community. The Prime Minister was obviously made aware of this unfortunate gap. At a public occasion a few days after the Budget was presented by the Finance Minister he focused on the issue, saying that the measure to exempt residences left to the disabled from stamp duty presaged measures to start meeting the need for community based supported accommodation and living.
That suggests that the issue will take priority in the Budget for 2015. Which would be a good thing. I suggest that the Government could go one better. As the year unfolds, if revenue and expenditure are on track the Prime Minister should direct the relevant ministers to find resources to start the scheme which would provide disabled persons with publicly supported accommodation and living.
This is not about playing politics and pacifying anger. It is about meeting a crying social need. Much has been done. There is always more to be achieved.