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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Disabled persons must enjoy full rights and freedoms

Belgrade, 3 December 2010

On the occasion of 3 December - International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights called on all citizens to take part as much as they can in the realisation of rights of disabled persons.

The statement by the Ministry underlines that people with disabilities are as valuable as everyone else, that they are entitled to education and employment, to having choice and making decisions about their life which others have to respect, and that this Ministry supports the work of organisations that gather disabled persons.

Bearing in mind that disability can happen to any of us at any time and that the right to life without violence is a basic human right, policy makers and the state have a responsibility and obligation to protect the rights of all citizens who live in it, while respecting their differences.

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities has been celebrated since 1992 when the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution inviting all countries to mark this day in order to enable persons with disabilities to equally enjoy human rights and have equal participation in social life.

Serbia has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with the Optional Protocol, adopted at the 61st UN General Assembly session in 2006, by which this document became an integral part of the internal legal order of our country.

It establishes the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the need for people with disabilities to be guaranteed full enjoyment of all rights and freedoms without any discrimination.

In addition to the Convention, Serbia’s laws and other documents whose provisions deal with people with some form of disability create the preconditions for the improvement of the condition and equalisation of the position of approximately 800,000 disabled people, or about 10% of the total population of our country, with other residents.

This creates preconditions for Serbia to get closer to the regulations and standards of the EU in this specific humanitarian sphere as soon as possible, the statement adds.