|in
focus archive|
The
3rd of December events in the region
Sarajevo
| Belgrade | Skopje
| Nis | Sabac | Tirana
| Durres | Elbasan &
Shkoder
"Freedom
of Movement: an inaccessible right?" - a traveling
exibition
Handicap International with the support of the French embassy
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
presented a photo exhibition“Freedom of Movement:
an inaccessible right?” documenting how people with
disabilities in South East Europe face and overcome physical
and architectural barriers to mobility. The show is based
on eight series of photos taken by Mrs. Raphaelle Sestranetz,
each one bearing witness to an individual with disabilities
and their daily struggle to surpass the many obstacles to
unrestricted movement. All of the photographic series are
accompanied by texts telling each person’s own story
about how they confront an inaccessible environment and
how they attempt to exercise their right to freedom of movement.
The exhibition will be displayed
throughout December beginning in Sarajevo from the 2nd-5th,
in Tuzla the 8th-15th, in Mostar the 16th-22nd and in Banja
Luka the 25th-31st.
 Mr
Suad Zahirovic, Executive Director of Information Centre
for People with Disabilites “Lotos”, Mr. Henry
Zipper de Fabiani, the Ambassador to the French embassy
in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Mrs. Lisa Adams, representative
of Handicap International opened the exhibition. 50 people
attended the opening from all sectors, including the Mayor
of the Municipality of “Stari Grad” and the
owner of Radio M, and several media were present as well.
All was noted in the morning edition of local paper “Oslobodjenje”,
as well as the national television of Monday the 5th of
December.
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"Our
voice 2005" conference,
Belgrade, 6th-7th December 2005
 This
significant national event provided an opportunity for representatives
of parliamentarian parties and of the national government
and national disabled peoples' organizations, to discuss,
share experiences regarding “Antidiscrimination legislation
for disabled people” and “National disability
strategy”, and to create a common platform regarding
disability issues and international standards in the frame
of the EU Accession Process for Serbia. We had a great pleasure
to welcome Mr. Boris Tadic, President of
the Republic of Serbia and his Excellency Mr. David
Gowan, Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Se rbia
and Montenegro who both stressed the importance of people
with disabilities to realize their rights and become equal
members of their society. The opening speeches were also
delivered by Mrs. Vesna Piperski-Tucakov, assistant to the
minister of labor and social affairs, Mrs. Sladjana Markovic,
deputy minister of labor and social affairs for disability
issues, Mrs. Ljubinka Borizovski, president of the Union
of Associations of people with disabilities and Damjan Tatic,
member of the Center for Independent living of Serbia and
member of the working group for the draft Law on Antidiscrimination.
The Conference gathered representatives
of Organizations of people with disabilities from Serbia,
parliamentary political parties, as well as representatives
of the European Disability Forum.
As we can conclude from the experience of
other countries that have recently integrated the EU, or
countries like Bulgaria and Romania, the EU accession process
brings a strong political momentum favorable for improvement
of the disability policy framework.
We are confident that this process will
enable better collaboration between government and civil
society regarding disability issues.
The National Conference is organized by the Association
of paraplegic and quadriplegic of Serbia, the Association
of children and cerebral palsy of Serbia, the Republic association
for help and support of persons living with autism and the
Centre for Independent Living (CIL, Serbia), with support
of Handicap International and Department for International
Development UK (DFID) through the Self Help and Advocacy
for Rights and Equal Opportunities in South East Europe
(Share-SEE) project.
You can download the conclusion
of the conference in english and in serbian by
clicking on the links bellow:
English
| Srpski
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National
Conference on Poverty and Intellectual Disability in the
Republic of Macedonia
 On
the 6th of December, the Republic center for support of
persons with intellectual disabilities-PORAKA has organized
a national conference on poverty and intellectual disability
in the Republic of Macedonia. This conference was organized
in partnership with 20 local organization- branches of PORAKA.
The topics of the conference where:
• the 3rd of December –international day of
people with disabilities (president of PORAKA)
• The importance of the national conference on poverty
and intellectual disability in the Republic of Macedonia
(vice-president of parliament)
• Poverty and intellectual disability (Program manager
of PORAKA)
• Strategy for decreasing poverty in the R. of Macedonia
(Minister of labor and social affairs)
• Decentralization- Local government –ensuring
the rights of people with intellectual disabilities and
decreasing the poverty (mayor of the municipality of Karpos-Skopje)
• Agenda 22 (program assistant in PORAKA)
• Discussions and conclusions
The conclusions from the conference
will be a base for the future improvements of the situation
of persons with intellectual disabilities in the R. of Macedonia.
This conference was covered by most of national media (|The
National Macedonian TV, TELMA, KANAL 5, etc)
The conference was co- financed by the Share-See program.
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The
3rd of December in Nis – “Let’s act! Every
day can be our day – the 3rd of December”
For the first time, the DPOs
in Nis have jointly organized the International Day of Persons
with Disabilities. Association of Students  with
Disabilities from Nis in cooperation with other DPOs organized
different events for 3rd December.
The organization of 3rd December started actually on 1st
December with opening of Charity Exhibition, where visitors
could see and buy handicrafts made by members of few DPOs.
Short cultural program was prepared for this occasion with
pupils of Special School “14. October” from
Nis and members of DPOs.
On 2nd December DPOs were invited by the Mayor to be his
guests in the City Hall. On the same day at 14:00 Association
of Students with Disabilities had press conference where
all activities considering 3rd December were announced.
 The
main event on 3rd December started at 11:30 with the walk
throughout the main street in Nis. All participants met
in front of Shopping Center “Kalca” where volunteers
from DPOs and Voluntary Center in Nis where distributing
promotion material – leaflets, small posters. Also,
they were conducting the questionnaire with citizens of
Nis on how much they are informed about 3rd December and
status of persons with disabilities. Results of the questionnaire
will be announced later.
This event was attended by the President of Muni cipality
of Mediana, Mr. Dragoslav Cirkovic, who has excellent cooperation
with the Association of Students with Disabilities.
Almost all local media from Nis were covering this event,
from short announcement to the reportage with the president
of Association Ms. Jasmina Barac.
The last activity was the competition of poem reciting held
on 5th December with participation of children from special
schools and closure of Charity Exhibition.
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The
3rd of December in Sabac
On the 3rd of December, on the occasion
of the International day of people with disabilities, members
of the Civic Association of People with Disabilities organized
a street event called „I can do a lot of things“.
They presented to their fellow citizens useful information
about the rights of people with disabilities, as well as
the objectives of their association and its activities.
This action gathered ten members of the association who
interviewed their fellow citizens and  handed
them brochures and CDs with information about the International
day of people with disabilities, the UN Standard Rules on
the Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities
and about the Associations of people with disabilities that
implement their activities simultaneously in four cities.
The project called „East, West, North and South“
is being implemented in Šabac, Pirot, Podgorica and
Majdanpek and is supported by Share-SEE. The project was
presented on the local radio station „Roda“.
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The 3rd of December
in Albania
Tirana
Handicap Interalb in cooperation with the FORUM of associations
of people with disabilities organized a large protest in
Tirana. The protest took place in one of the biggest boulevards,
from the Skenderbeg place to the Mother Teresa place and
was supported by the police that gave its permission to
block the boulevard for two hours between 10:00 and 12:00.
All the associations of people with disabilities from Tirana
participated in the protest with slogans stating the rights
of people with disabilities, such as : ‘Nothing about
us without us’, ‘Stop the Barriers’, ‘Work
for all’, ‘Stop Discrimination’, ‘Respect
human rights’, ‘Sign language is our language’,
‘School for all’, ‘ Build for us’,
‘Accessibility for all’, etc.
 In
the afternoon, the Forum of people with disabilities organized
a concert involving artists with disabilities, as well as
an exhibition of artwork of people with disabilities. The
Prime Minister of Albania participated to these events.
Durres
The Association of Mothers of children with disabilities
and other  associations
of people with disabilities from Durres organized a protest
in the center of their town. The protest consisted of a
performance representing a cage with people with disabilities
and representatives of the municipality of Durres inside.
This performance symbolized that the life of people with
disabilities is a life in prison if the physical environment
isn't build according to their needs and if the society
doesn’t respect their human rights.
.
 The
councils of people with disabilities in other towns in Albania
such as Elbasan, Shkoder, Kukes, Diber, Korca also organized
various activities on the occasion of the 3rd of December.
In Elbasan, the assiociation MEDPAK organized a large
protest in the centre of the town, as well as activities
in the Cultural Centre of Elbasan. In Shkoder, the association
of parents of children with disabilities organized a concert
and a protest in the center of the town.
Activities in Durres, Elbasan, Shkodra were
financed by SHARE SEE.
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