COFACE views on the New Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030: Can it drive a societal SHIFT in Europe towards full inclusion?

COFACE Families Europe and its COFACE Disability Platform for the rights of persons with disabilities and their families welcome the adoption by the European Commission of the European Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030 (EDRS) and the leadership taken by the European Commission, and Commissioner Dalli in particular, to foster equality in Europe. This new framework, which was published by the European Commission on 3rd of March 2021, marks an important step forward towards the implementation of the UN Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) for persons with disabilities and their families in the EU.

This new strategy takes a whole new significance in the current context. The COVID-19 crisis brutally highlighted how far we are from fulfilling the promises of the UNCRPD in Europe: the consequences of lockdowns on support services, the huge burden on family carers and/or supports as a consequence of service closures yet completely “Forgotten” by public authorities, and the critical situation in institutions and the increased exclusion of persons with disabilities and their families are impossible to ignore.

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