The European Centre for Law and Justice participates at the Slovaks with Disabilities Conference

May 16, 2006

(Bratislava, Slovakia)- ECLJ representative Roger Kiska attended and participated in the Slovaks with Disabilities Conference held May 15 and 16 in Bratislava. ECLJ gave an address at the event discussing human dignity as the underlying principle in European Union anti-discrimination legislation. The speech which was delivered on the first day will be published by the Slovaks with Disabilities caucus. The conference was jointly held by the Slovak Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and the Disabilities Caucus, in conjunction with the European Commission.

The event leads up to both the European Year of Equal Opportunity for All [2007] and the final draft deadline for the new United Nations Convention on Disability. ECLJ participated in the January drafting of the Convention and will also be present at the August consummation of the draft.  Its goal in attending will be two-fold: to provide information in regards the drafting to both the Slovak Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and the Slovak with Disabilities Caucus and to ensure that the integrity of the document is not compromised by the inclusion of language regarding gender equality and abortion and reproductive rights. ECLJ views the convention as a very important step forward in international rights for the disabled and feels that inclusion of proposed language on sexual and gender issues would demean the document and place it on an ever growing pile of UN documents that are largely ignored because of their focus on reproductive rights.