Calling on all EU member states to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Disabled during a debate on improving mobility and inclusion of people with disabilities in the European Parliament today, GUE/NGL MEP Ilda Figueiredo (Portugal) said "disabled rights are human rights".

She stressed the need to develop national and Community policies and strategies "that are not just vague plans without a timetable and without adequate financing".

"But let's not just say that we recognize the human rights of people with disabilities and then adopt policies which call into question their most basic rights like austerity programmes, neoliberal policies and the Stability Pact which mean less pay and less essential public services for these people. All these policies undermine access to vital public services such as health, education, transport and energy for disabled people," said Figueiredo.

"This motion for a resolution is highly important for our societies to do away with existing barriers and not to create new ones for women and men with disabilities," said Mikael Gustafsson (GUE/NGL, Sweden). He welcomed the fact that the resolution highlighted the importance of a gender perspective explaining that "women with disabilities suffer higher rates of poverty and social exclusion."

"In a socially sustainable society the double discrimination that disabled women today are exposed to should no longer be permitted. In a socially sustainable society, women and men with disabilities should have a good quality of life and should not be socially excluded," he concluded.

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20   

gabrielle.kavanagh@europarl.europa.eu  

David Lundy +32 485 50 58 12

david.lundy@europarl.europa.eu

European United Left / Nordic Green Left

European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu