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The right to political participation of persons with mental health problems and persons with intellectual disabilities
- Author:
- EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
- Publisher:
- European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 24p.
- Place of publication:
- Vienna
The right to vote and to be elected is a fundamental right that all citizens in the European Union should be able to enjoy, on an equal basis. The report highlights international and European standards in this area and analyses the current legal framework in all 27 EU Member States, with the intention of contributing to knowledge about and the process of reform currently taking place in the EU Member States. The report starts by describing the international and European standards favouring the full participation of persons with intellectual disabilities and persons with mental health problems in the electoral process. The comparative law analysis then highlights the diverse approaches adopted in the EU Member States. In a majority of these, persons who have lost their legal capacity are automatically deprived of their right to political participation. The European Court of Human Rights, however, clearly stated that such an automatic deprivation contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights. In other EU Member States, the practice is to organise an individualised assessment of the actual ability to vote of the individuals in question. Finally, a third group of EU Member States have moved towards full participation of persons with disabilities in the electoral process. The report provides suggestions for the way forward to make sure that the standards in this area are applied in practice.
A comparative study of the situation of supported employment in Europe
- Authors:
- BEYER Stephen, DE URRIES Francisco de Borja, VENDUGO Miguel Angel
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 7(2), June 2010, pp.130-136.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
A web-based questionnaire about the services at agencies offering supported employment (SE) in the European Union (EU) yielded responses from 184 organisations from mostly, Spain, Finland and United Kingdom, (also Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and Romania) in October-December 2006. Most respondents offered a wide range of services, with 83% offering SE (50% beginning in last 5 years). Services such as vocational training and sheltered work provision were offered by 40% and 25%, respectively. Significant variation in the provision of the 5 elements of SE, vocational profiling, job finding, analysis and placement, job training and support (skilled job trainer/on-the-job co-worker) and follow-along services was evident which could disadvantage people with intellectual or learning disabilities (ID). Funding of SE varied with 22% relying on short term European financing. People with ID were the largest (35%) group of users of SE. Working hours varied with 73% working over 24 hours-a-week and a minority on permanent contract, except in the UK where SE remains largely part time (37% less than 12 hours-a-week) suggesting poor harmonisation within welfare benefit legislation provision across the EU, disproportionately affecting people with ID, say these authors. Variation in models used, financing, hours of support (already low, say these authors) may lead to less effective SE and a call is made for follow-up studies.