The Croatian Government has refused to accept Declaration on Rights of Persons with Dissabilities. Arguing this decision Government finds it unneccesary to accept the document that has no executive force and contains the same rights Croatia allready guaranteed by signing international conventions related to this problem. (30-NOV-04)
Oppositional parliamentarian Vesna Škulic, who wrote the Declaration, finds this decision to be the result of insufficient political will to accept proposals coming from the opposition.
– We don´t want to politicize our problems, but that is unfortunately inevitable, said Vesna Škulic to the daily paper Veèernji.
The fundamental idea of the Declaration was to raise public awareness about the needs and difficulties that this unrecognizable, but significant social group is facing. In addition, the Declaration was supposed to be one of the assumptions for the increase in protecting the rights of disabled persons, as well as public recognition of problems they face on daily basis. Unlike the rest of Croatian political elite, Vesna Škulic, being in the weelchair herself, is probably most affected by the lack of wider social understanding for disabled persons.
– It´s a pity that politics stands in the way for the enactment of one benign document that aims to improve social attitude towards a silent and invisible minority, Škulic said.
