CONFERENCES
- gaining public visibility – featuring stakeholders’
perspective – building common ground for action
•Regional conference "Step towards Europe II - Disability rights and policies in South East Europe", from 2-5 June 2008, Ilidza-Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The conference gathered at one place some 100 key stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of the policies impacting life of people with disabilities, such as Disabled Peoples' Organizations, government representatives, European Union, European Commission, and international organizations' representatives. This conference was also a great opportunity to evaluate the progress made since March 2005, when the first Conference has been organized and set up milestones for the period 2007-2013.
The Regional Conference was organized by Information Centre for Persons with Disabilities
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Centre for Independent Living Serbia and Handicap International under the Share-See Project in cooperation with the European Disability Forum (EDF) with the support of European Commission through European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).
The conference was opened by Mrs. Spomenka Micic, vice-president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Michael Docherty from the European Commission delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Emmanuel Sauvage, program director of Handicap International in South East Europe and by Mr. Bas Treffers, president of the European Disability Forum. The opening ceremony was followed by plenary sessions structured around different topics: perspectives of disability movements from the different countries, perspective of the different governments from the region in relation to the progress made in the area of disability and human rights since 2005, the UN Convention and its implication for the region, etc. The conference organized as well break out sessions on different topics where participants had the opportunity to discuss and exchange views on the ways forward in the fulfillment of human rights for persons with disabilities. The conclusions from the break out sessions formed the basis for the adoption of a resolutions document which will serve as a strong advocacy document for all stakeholders involved in the reform of disability rights and policies in South East Europe.
Conference report English | Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian
List of participants | Resolution document English | Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian
• 2 international conferences on disability policy
and EU accession process in South East Europe, 2005, 2008.
March 14-17, 2005, “Disability
Policy and EU Accession Process in South Eastern Europe”,
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
With the support of Share-SEE, the conference gathered
representatives of organizations of people with disabilities
and government representatives from 8 South East European
countries, together with representatives from European
institutions, International NGOs and European Disability
Movement. The conference aimed at sharing knowledge, experiences
and views on Disability Policy in South East Europe in
the perspective of the EU Accession Process.
See the platform for action:
English | Bosnian
• 6 national unified voice
conferences, 2004-2005
July 9-11, 2004, Unified Voice Conference, in
Ohrid, Macedonia.
Organised by Polio Plus with the support of Share-See,
the seminar aimed at solving the ancient conflict between
newer Disabled People Organisations in Macedonia and Unions
of disabled people. The seminar ended very positively
since the participants made the conclusion that the conference
was very useful and that this method of mutual acting
has to be also practiced in the future, in order to build
up the unified and strong voice of disabled in Macedonia
• 3 regional conferences on accessibility,
2003, 2004, 2005
February 22-23, 2006– Access 2006: Freedom
of Movement – an (in)accessible right? -regional
conference on accessibility, Belgrade, Serbia
Organised by the Centre for Independent Living Serbia,
with the support of SHARE-SEE.
The conference contributed to review the achievement in
the improvement of accessibility for people with disability
in the region.
See the conclusions:
english | serbian
• 1 regional conference
on disability rights, 2003
October 5,6,7, 2003 - Regional conference on disability
rights, Skopje.
Organised by Polio Plus, with the support of SHARE-SEE.
"Initiating legal changes in the issue of disability
in Republic of Macedonia and the Region, based on the
Achievements and Perspectives of the Council of Europe"
The participants produced and adopted a resolution aiming
to advocate the governments of the region for concrete
step further in legislative change and improvement.
See
the resolution .pdf
WORKSHOPS –
gathering focused actors – exploring focused topics
– defining collaborative roles for going forward
• 1 regional and
8 local workshops on Media and Disability for journalists
and media representatives, 2007-2008
8 local media workshops took place this year in: Bosnia and Herzegovina (Tuzla, Banja Luka and Sarajevo), Montenegro (Podgorica), Serbia (Nis and Novi Sad) and the UN administered province of Kosovo (Pristina and Gracanica). The workshops gathered DPO activists and media professionals using the discussion paper as a starting point for finding ways to work together.
The workshops aimed to raise awareness of media professionals on disability from a human rights perspective and to make clear how disability advocates can work more effectively with the media to get their message across. Besides sharing necessary skills and knowledge, the organisers helped create a platform for discussion and networking among DPO activists and media practitioners working in South East Europe. The workshops were organized in cooperation with local partners in the region and with representatives of organizations of people with disabilities that are working on media as a tool for advocacy.
• 1 regional and
8 local workshops on “Mainstreaming the UN Convention
on the rights of persons with disabilities into human
rights organisations’ activities”, 2007-2008
September 13-14,
2007, regional workshop on Mainstreaming the UN Convention
on the rights of persons with disabilities into human
rights organisations’ activities
The workshop gathered human rights organizations and
disabled people’s organizations from the region
in order to acquire a common understanding of the UN
Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
in the perspective of the disability community. The
workshop also aimed at creating incentives for joint-collaboration
and at defining similar workshops locally.
• 1 regional workshop
on the draft Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities organised by UN DESA, 2006
March 21-23, 2006,
Un Non-Eu Eastern Europe Consultative Meeting On A Draft
Comprhensive Integral International Convention On The
Promotion And Protection Of The Rights And Dignity Of
Persons With Disabilities.
The meeting had two objectives: sharing of information
on the on-going negotiation process, the content of
the draft Convention, its critical issues and the debate
around them; as well as favoring a dialogue among regional
stakeholders in order to define the region priorities
with respect to the future Convention.
See the declaration
English | Serbian
• 4 regional workshops
on community-based services, 2003 – 2006
• 1 regional workshop
on advocacy and lobbying strategies, 2003
December 13 – 14, 2003, Seminar on advocacy
and lobbying strategies , Neum, BiH
Organized by IC-Lotos, with the support of SHARE-SEE.
The main goal was to try to define a common understanding
of the strategy of advocacy and lobbying towards the
governmental bodies to implement the UN Standard Rules
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This conference was also
supported by CCI – Centre for Civic Initiatives,
BIH – in the spirit of building a bridge between
the disability movement and the other civil society
stakeholders. This was also a first step to rebuild
the dialogue towards action among DPOs.
STUDY
VISITS - exchanging knowledge and experiences –
increasing understanding of local issues by broadening
perspective • From 2007, study visits
and summer schools between DPOs from South East Europe
and their counterparts in Sweden
Summer School Learning for Doing! Theory and praxis in the implementation of disability policy in Sweden, from September 28 – October 3, 2008
In order to stimulate exchange of knowledge, to bring about new experience and to lay a basis for cooperation between Balkan and Swedish DPOs, a study visit, called Summer School, was organised for 20 Balkan participants. The hosting organisation was Shia, and the Summer School was a part of the cooperation within the SHARE-SEE project. The participants represented DPOs that are involved in the creation of a local disability action plan in their respective countries. Some of the participants were SHARE-SEE trainers that are monitors in the project that will lead to the mainstreaming of disability into local policy. The objectives of the Summer School were:- To exchange useful and relevant knowledge and experiences on the process of establishing and implementing local disability policy between Swedish and Balkan DPOs and Swedish municipalities:
- To introduce the participants to the Swedish system of local disability councils
- To introduce the participants to the Swedish Ombudsman system and its functioning on both the national and the local level,
- To introduce the participants to Swedish legislation in the disability field and how it is being implemented on the municipal level.
- To establish contacts and links between DPOs from the Balkan countries and Sweden in order to lay a sustainable basis for exchange and cooperationThe working methods at the Summer School were study visits, lectures, interactive discussions and contact making.
This was the first step for a larger group for concrete exchange with Sweden and the evaluation and the reports written by the participants afterwards really shows that the Summer School was successful.
The program of the Summer School can be found here
• 20 study visits in the region from 2003 to 2006
- An exchange between a Kosovo association and Polio Plus
about newsletter development.
- A 2 weeks trip study for Albanian associations has been
organized in April 2003 in Budapest with a Hungarian DPO.
The purpose was to study the disability laws in this country
in order to bring comparative propositions to the Albanian
Ministry of Social Welfare in the revision of disability
legislative framework (in the field of education, employment
and environment accessibility) .
- A trip exchange between Association of Disable Students
(ADS – Serbia) and similar associations in Washington's
campus has been co-financed by SHARE-SEE in May 2003.
This exchange has allowed the creation of links between
stakeholders from the region and from the US.
- Another trip exchange has been co-funded in Belgrade
to facilitate peer counselling by ADS for two groups of
students from Banja Luka and Skopje willing to create
their own student association.
- Two study visits have been organized in BIH and Romania
for two associations of parents of Montenegro in order
to see different kind of community services that could
inspire them in their project of set up day care centre.
- A study visit has been organized in Bulgaria for an
association of parents from Macedonia for the same purpose.
Exchange for DPOs: Macedonia –
Kosovo – Albania
July 5 - 8, 2006, Tirana - Albania
“Shpresa”, a non-profit, non-governmental
organization from Skopje whose goal is to improve the
living conditions of people with disabilities, applied
for the financial assistance from SHARE SEE in order to
organize an exchange between Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania.
Apart from Shpresa, the partners in this project were
the following organizations: Handikep from Tetovo and
etc.
