“In Turkey, people with disabilities face violations in dozens of areas such as the right to education, the right to health, the right to work, adequate standard of living, participation in political and social life, and participation in cultural life. On December 3, 2020, the United Nations (UN) International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a group of volunteers in Germany” established a platform within “Human Rights Defenders (HRD)” working in the field of human rights.
The press release of the platform, which announced its founding declaration on December 3, is as follows:
HAND in HAND DISABILITY RIGHTS PLATFORM FOUNDING DECLARATION and PRESS RELEASE
Today is December 3, 2020, the United Nations (UN) International Day of Persons with Disabilities. On this meaningful day recognized by the UN to remember people with disabilities and draw attention to their problems, we are announcing the establishment of our platform, which we have been preparing for a long time, to be the voice of people with disabilities who have been wronged and whose rights have been usurped.
According to World Health Organization data, approximately 1 billion people with disabilities live in the world. About one-fifth of this population, which constitutes the largest minority in the world, has severe disabilities that require assistance from others.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted on December 13, 2006, guarantees dozens of rights for persons with disabilities, such as: The right to life, liberty and security of person, Equal recognition before the law, Access to justice, Prohibition of torture, Freedom from exploitation, violence or abuse, Respect for physical and mental integrity, Freedom of movement and nationality, Living independently and being included in the community, Personal mobility, Respect for privacy, Respect for home and family, Right to education, Right to health, Right to work, Adequate standard of living, Participation in political and public life, and Participation in cultural life.
This convention was developed to protect the human rights of people with disabilities, who constitute the world’s largest minority. The purpose of this convention is not to create new rights and freedoms, but to reorganize the rights that already exist in human rights treaties in the context of disability.
People with disabilities, like all other people, are individuals who have rights and whose rights should be legally protected in all areas of life. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has expanded the definition of disability and deepened the perspective of rights advocacy by bringing together the concept of human rights with the issue of disability.
People with disabilities, even in the modern world we live in, are seriously discriminated against in areas such as education, health, employment, and income equality. According to UNESCO data, 90% of school-age children with disabilities living in developing countries cannot benefit from their right to education; moreover, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities worldwide is around 80%. The International Labour Organization states that a significant portion of this rate is due to the employment policies of states and the private sector, rather than individuals’ disabilities.
“In Turkey, one of the first states to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, millions of people with disabilities enter this meaningful day deprived of many rights, especially employment, education, health, and transportation. Because barriers to participation in social life persist, millions of people with disabilities are condemned to live within four walls. Unfortunately, in Turkey”, people with disabilities are still seen as subjects of charity rather than subjects of rights.
In Turkey, the Disability Act needs to be harmonized with the language of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, especially the comprehensive regulation of the definition of disability. The law in Turkey focuses on ‘impairment’ rather than the causes of disability. A medical model is adopted instead of a human-centered approach.
The inclusion of people with disabilities in working life is one of the most fundamental universal human rights. However, in Turkey, even in the public sector, appropriate arrangements for employees with disabilities have not been fully implemented. The working lives of disabled public servants contain many difficulties both during the candidacy period and afterwards.
People with disabilities living in Turkey have many problems. We will try to bring these problems to the agenda on all national and international platforms.
On the occasion of today, we want to draw attention to an ongoing issue for people with disabilities in Turkey. Over 2000 (two thousand) disabled public servants in Turkey who had overcome countless difficulties to earn the right to work, and who subsequently fulfilled their duties properly, have been unfairly dismissed from their jobs by Decree Laws (KHK). These Disabled Public Servants, who have never been involved in any crime in their lives and have clean records, were left unemployed by having their professions, lives, and acquired rights usurped in a completely arbitrary manner, without any investigation being conducted against them before their dismissal, without a court decision.
According to KESK data, among the hundreds of thousands of dismissed workers, there are those who have declared themselves to be Orthopedically, Visually, Hearing, Mentally, or Multiply disabled, as well as those with ‘chronic illnesses’. The study reported that disabled individuals were dismissed from 55 different provinces and 19 different institutions. Of the dismissed disabled individuals, 42% stated they were orthopedically disabled, 13% visually impaired, 9% multiply disabled (having more than one disability), 7% hearing impaired, while the rate of those with chronic illnesses is 29%. 82% of the dismissed disabled individuals are male and 18% are female. The study emphasized that the dismissed disabled individuals did not undergo any administrative or judicial prosecution/investigation before their dismissal, and that their right to defense was not granted during the dismissal process.
Disabled workers who were unfairly dismissed have also been deprived of the important right to retirement. Although disabled public employees who have completed the legal 15-year period have the right to retire, the retirement requests of dismissed disabled workers who have completed this period have been rejected. They were informed that they could retire after completing 25 years, as if they were regular public employees, ignoring their status as disabled workers. With this unfair practice, dismissed disabled individuals with 15 years of service have been deprived of their retirement rights.
Today, with the “Hand in Hand Disabled Rights Platform”, whose founding charter we have signed and officially established here:
- Primarily to draw attention to the grievances of Disabled people in Turkey,
- To be the voice of Disabled people who have suffered injustices and left Turkey to come abroad, to here,
- To organize disabled individuals around our platform, making them part of the solution and the struggle,
- To identify the problems faced by Disabled people and find ways to solve them,
- To try to facilitate the integration of Disabled victims who had to leave Turkey into the society where they are now.
In light of this information, we are pleased to announce the establishment of the HAND in HAND Platform within Human Rights Defenders (HRD).
Respectfully announced to the public.
