Emmanuel Macron will chair the 6th National Conference on Disability (CNH) on Wednesday at the Elysee Palace, a major meeting that associations are threatening to boycott, castigating an “apparent lack of ambition” to improve the rights and daily life of people with disabilities. .
“The CNH will provide concrete answers to improve the lives of people with disabilities, their families and caregivers. All subjects of daily life will be addressed,” said Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister Delegate for People with Disabilities, to AFP. . “There will be a before and after CNH in our society, especially with regard to the fundamental rights” of these people, she promises.
Meeting which takes place every three years and whose mission is to set the course for public disability policies, the conference should discuss the schooling of children, employment, accessibility – for example websites or small shops–, and other aspects of daily life, such as health or the facilitation of administrative procedures.
The CNHs were established by the 2005 law. Wednesday’s meeting will bring together members of the government, elected officials, local authorities, administrations, associations, companies, unions, according to the Ministry of Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities.
On the program: speeches by the Minister of Solidarity Jean-Christophe Combe and the Minister Delegate Geneviève Darrieussecq, thematic round tables, and in closing a speech by the President of the Republic.
Upstream, associations for the defense of people affected by disabilities increased pressure on the executive and threatened to boycott the conference if it was not postponed.
In a letter addressed to Mr. Macron, the Collectif Handicaps, which brings together 52 associations, asked to postpone this conference for “a few weeks” to “start a real consultation on the measures envisaged”. The Collective castigates “an apparent lack of ambition”.
Its president Arnaud de Broca points to “a fairly general dissatisfaction among the member associations” of the collective. “They are not satisfied with the way the preparatory work has gone and the lack of information on the measures that will be announced and their funding,” he told AFP.
These associations will meet Monday at the end of the day to decide on their participation.
“Staggering the decisions, the announcements and the outcome of the work carried out in common would only postpone the urgently expected solutions,” replied Ms. Darrieussecq to AFP.
Mr. Macron had made disability one of the priorities of his first five-year term, but the subject was not mentioned in the major projects for the next 100 days mentioned on April 17, the associations still deplore. The Collective is asking for a “truly ambitious policy with a multi-annual budget plan”.
He wants the government to take measures to remedy the shortcomings highlighted by the Council of Europe in a report published in mid-April.
Seized in 2018 by associations, the European Committee of Social Rights (CEDS) of this international organization based in Strasbourg and distinct from the EU, criticized France for not effectively remedying the problems related to the inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities in schools as well as the difficulties of persons with disabilities in accessing health services.
“The government was aware of the report of the Council of Europe and yet provided no response during the preparation of the conference. There is a lot of anger among associations and families of people with disabilities,” he told AFP. Marie-Jeanne Richard, president of Unafam, which represents people with a mental disability.
The Ministry for People with Disabilities argues that the conclusions of the Council of Europe’s Social Rights Committee “are based on complaints made in 2018” and that “since then, new rights have been opened up”.
04/24/2023 08:16:23 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
