The NGO Fight For Right has created and presented the diukraine.infoplatform , which will collect all information on deinstitutionalisation – the reform of institutional care for people with disabilities, whereby staying in closed residential institutions should be replaced by living in communities.
The organisation told ZMINA that the presentation of the information platform took place on 8 October in Kyiv.
Fight For Right reminded that deinstitutionalisation in Ukraine began more than seven years ago with attempts to reform institutional services for children. However, there have been no significant changes so far. And there are still many sceptics who, when they hear about deinstitutionalisation for adults, react with statements such as ‘you want to throw people out on the street’. It is to dispel these fears that Fight For Right collects all the information on the diukraine.info platform. Here you can find answers to key questions about deinstitutionalisation, read materials about the history and reality of institutions in the world and in Ukraine, and get acquainted with international standards regarding: institutional facilities; legal capacity; independent living in communities; and support in decision-making.
According to the Ministry of Social Policy, there are currently 40,000 people in institutions of the ‘social protection system’ alone, of whom more than 36,000 are people with disabilities. The ministry is to adopt a deinstitutionalisation strategy by the end of the year, according to Fight For Right.
The human rights activists remind that the DI is a mandatory change in Ukraine’s European integration process. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has repeatedly emphasised the need for the implementation of the CI in Ukraine, as the detention of people in institutions violates their rights and the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
During the presentation, Fight For Right’s advocacy manager Liudmyla Fursova stressed that everyone has the right to live in the community, and it is unacceptable to lock thousands of people in institutions just because of their disability.
Yulia Sachuk, head of Fight For Right, noted that for decades, Ukraine has been finding various excuses for not respecting the rights of people with disabilities, such as economic and social difficulties, war, etc. This situation can be changed if everyone understands the need for deinstitutionalisation.
“We can develop a habit by asking questions: Do I really treat people with disabilities the same way I treat myself? Would it be good for me if, because of my particular feature, someone came to me, took me away, put me somewhere, locked the door without the right to leave? Would it be good if I was not hired because of this characteristic? Would it be good if I was deprived of the right to vote? Imagine, for example, you just come to a polling station and are told: ‘You will not vote’. Wouldn’t it be publicised if it happened to people without disabilities? ‘ says Yulia Sachuk.
The organisation’s experts are convinced that the delay in deinstitutionalisation threatens to increase the number of people in institutions. After all, there are cases when people with disabilities or older people were evacuated from the frontline areas to institutions, and this is already enslavement. Even though they had lived independently in their homes before.
According to Olena Fartushna, a representative of the Directorate for the Development of Social Services of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, 3,000 people were placed in institutions in 2023, and another 5,000 were evacuated from one institution to another, i.e. re-institutionalised. At the same time, the official noted that people in the communities have the opportunity to receive social services from different providers: ‘In territorial communities, more than 400,000 elderly people with disabilities receive home care services. This is a prevention of institutionalisation.’
Uliana Tokareva, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine , welcomed the Fight For Right initiative to create the platform on her social media page:
“We at the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine are developing a Deinstitutionalisation Strategy, so we are glad that such an independent information platform has appeared, which will contain materials created from the perspective of a human rights organisation. We also plan to share important information through this platform.”
If you would like to express your opinion on deinstitutionalisation, share your experience or become a partner of the diukraine.info platform, please write to Fight For Right at info@ffr.org.ua with the note ‘For the DI platform’. We are open for cooperation!
This initiative is implemented by the NGO ‘Fight For Right’ with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, Open Society Foundations, New Democracy Fund, DPOD.
Source: ZMINA
