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Time for more autonomy
In celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities in early December, EU for Trisomy 21 hosted the first of The Future is Ours events: Time for more Autonomy.
Time for more autonomy
In celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities in early December, EU for Trisomy 21 hosted the first of our The Future is Ours events: Time for more Autonomy.
Throughout our work with our partner organizations over the past few years, we realized that due to the different national laws and social systems across European countries, the level of autonomy people with disabilities could achieve varied drastically. So the question of what living an autonomous life meant for people with Down Syndrome was a topic of several debates. It was difficult to strike a balance between independence and assistance- but what it came down to was this:
The person with Down Syndrome had to decide for themselves:
What did I want?
The support system was then responsible for helping with the question:
How could I do this?
This applied to everything from living situations and work, to education and the question of how one could participate in the democratic process and make a difference for people like them.
And this is where all EU members experienced a big change. In May 2022, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) adopted a new EU Electoral Law, in time for the European Parliament elections of 2024. This was then submitted to the Council of Ministers (our National Governments) as the final decision to change the EU electoral law had to be taken by Member States. The text approved by the MEPs read:
“Every Union citizen from 16 years of age, including persons with disabilities regardless of their legal capacity, had the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament”.
While this was exciting news - until then, people with a diminished legal capacity had only been able to vote in 8 European countries - the EU had to work hard to adjust its communication and accessibility to really empower people with disabilities to cast an informed vote in 2024.
Our event in December was the first of many steps towards just that: making sure our EU-wide Network was prepared for the upcoming elections - and even more importantly, that they were prepared for us!
We gave the floor to field experts, parents, and decision-makers, and most importantly to Self Advocates. The question of Autonomy was much larger than just talking about the elections - we wanted to hear from People with Down Syndrome what living an autonomous life meant for them, have them share their own stories and experiences.
Our event took place on December 7th, at 18:00 CET (Paris Time) via Zoom. Take a look at our program on the right and read the Press Release we posted afterwards here.
About Eufortrisomy21.eu
A platform for the collaboration of associations, citizens and politicians working together for the celebration of World Down syndrome Day, to make visible the intellectual disability in general and persons with trisomy 21 in particular (most common intellectual disability of genetic origin, also called Down syndrome).
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