UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Effect

The cabinet has published its ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , which was passed by Turkish parliament unanimously on 3 December 2008, the Day of Disability.

What does the Convention imply?

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities holds the government responsible for integrating disabled people as a part of society, for protecting them from discrimination and stigmatization, for making their facilities accessible for disabled people, and for equality before the law.

Additional protocol is next

Turkey has yet to sign the additional protocols, which allow individuals and groups to apply to the UN Disability Rights Committee if all domestic legal possibilities have been exhausted.

What is going to change?

The UN Special Committee for Rights for the Disabled People said that the existing human rights convention protects the rights for disabled people on paper. However, in practice the disabled do not benefit from these rights.

The Committee summarized the convention's main points as follows:

Integration of disabled people into society: This title contains the main idea of the convention. Disabled people are being discriminated against and detached from society.

Dispose of stereotypes: the government is held responsible for disposing of stereotypes regarding disabled people. The best way to overcome those clichés is the disabled people's integration into and interaction with the society.

Accessibility: This is the most urgent topic for the implementation of the convention. It aims to ensure that every building's facilities, including informatics and communication technologies, can be reached and accessed by disabled people in any area.

Equality before the law: Recognition of legal equality, access to the law, respect for private life and for the family, participation in the political, public, and cultural life. These headings find their implementations in the fields of education, health, rehabilitation, work and an appropriate standard of living.

Mentally disabled people

The Initiative for Human Rights in Mental Health in Turkey (RUSİHAK) has fought for almost two years to integrate the convention into the Turkish domestic legislation. In the following table RUSİHAK summarized the hoped-for changes in Turkey for mentally disabled people and individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis.

The convention brings special protection to those groups most neglected, disabled children and the mentally disabled. (TK/ VK-AG)