One of the key demands of the disability movement that will be raised during the All-Cypriot protest event taking place outside the Presidential Palace on Friday, December 2, is the planning and implementation of a well-funded deinstitutionalization strategy for the purpose of ensuring equal rights of citizens to live in the community with choices equal to others, and the taking of effective and appropriate measures to facilitate their full integration and participation in the community, states the Cyprus Confederation of Disabled Organizations (CYSOA) in a press release.
“Executive, legislative and judicial power must ensure that there will be an end to the ongoing crime against people who, against their will, are led to incarceration in institutions,” he adds. It states that all preventive and other possible measures must be taken to effectively supervise and monitor the living conditions of people with disabilities residing in institutional structures, such as psychiatric facilities, nursing homes, community homes or other settings, the investigation and accurate determination of the causes and conditions of death of persons with disabilities, including suicide.
Then, after noting that it is estimated that more than 13 thousand citizens of all ages are still living in institutional structures, including four thousand people with disabilities, he adds that the permanent position of KYSOA is to immediately end the forcing of people with disabilities into confinement in institutions.
Calls for an immediate end to the unacceptable policies and practices of the Republic of Cyprus, according to which people with mental, intellectual, psychosocial, motor and visual disabilities are forced to stay in institutions that characterize them, among others, the absence of security conditions, measures to protect against the pandemic, the inadequacy of staff and the very low funding for their operation.
It requires, as he adds, the taking of all the necessary measures to ensure dignity and security of persons living in institutions and other discriminatory structures, for the entire period they continue to reside civilly there and before they leave these institutions.
Source: KYPE
