This month marks the third anniversary of when the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) came into effect in Malta. It is an appropriate occasion to take stock of the situation of disabled people in Malta today.

In these three years, there have beensignificant developments that have continued to build on the valuable work carried out in the disability sector over thepast decades.

One of the most positive developments is the Bill presented by the Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity to make the CRPD itself enforceable as part of Maltese law. The eventual passing of this Bill into law will provide a strong defence of disabled people’s rights. The CRPD is focused on disabled people enjoying their rights on an equal basis with others.

It is therefore not simply a question of providing disabled students with an education, but with an inclusive education; not simply providing them with work opportunities but for them to work in the open labour market; not simply for them to have a decent place to live in but community-based homes with disabled people having the right to choose where to live and with whom; not simply having access to services and facilities but being able to use the same ones used by the rest of the population.

These rights are of course underpinned by the obligation for public and private sector service providers and employers to provide reasonable accommodation to address disabled people’s impairment-related requirements. And an obligation on the State to provide the necessary support services.

While current efforts to increase the employment rate of disabled persons and to build more small community-based homes are steps in the right direction, the proposed disability hub is at odds with the implementation of the CRPD and its entrenchment in Maltese law. The facilities envisaged for this hub are all valuable for disabled people.

The proposed disability hub is at odds with the implementation of the convention

It is a positive step forward for disabled people to be involved in the running of restaurants, shops, leisure facilities and residential services. But these should be located in mainstream community, not in a purpose-built and thus artificial community.

It is also a positive step forward thatthe government is committing funds for increasing much needed access to services for disabled people. But using those funds to create a physically separate space for disabled people is detrimental to inclusion.

How can restaurateurs elsewhere in Malta be obliged to make their establishments accessible, when they can easily tell disabled people that they can use the restaurants in the hub?

How can the owner of a mainstream leisure facility be obliged to ensure access to a swimming pool, when, with a clear conscience, they can send disabled people to use the pool located within the hub? And how can a disabled person residing in the middle of a disability hub enjoy real community-based living?

These and other questions regarding the purpose of the hub need to be urgently addressed and explained,especially following the recent conference organised by KNPD regarding Article 19of the UNCRPD that deals with ‘independent living’.

We propose that the allocated funds are utilised to ensure that disabled people are given access to existing community-based services and facilities, the same ones that non-disabled people make use of on a daily basis and that with these funds could be made accessible to all.

These funds can also be used to strengthen and further develop the present community services, such as those of Aġenzija Sapport, and provide personal assistants so that disabled people can continue to live within their communities. It is only in this way that disabled people can enjoy their rights ‘on an equal basis with others’.

Vickie Gauci is head of department and Anne-Marie Callus lecturer, at the Department of Disability Studies, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta.

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