Webinar on disability-based discrimination in employment by the European Commission: #EUvsDiscrimination

syyskuu 28, 2020

EU:n komissio, EU:n parlamentti, YK:N CRPD

On the 11^th of September EUD took part in a webinar on the topic of disability-based discrimination in employment. The webinar was organised by the Disability Unit of the European Commission, with keynote presenters such as Ms. Katarina Ivankovic, Director for Social Affairs at DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission (EC), Ms. Emmanuelle Grande, Head of the Disability and Inclusion Unit of the EC, and Catherine Naughton, Director of the European Disability Forum, among others.

Ms. Katarina Ivankovic presented the awareness-raising campaign ‘EUvsDiscrimination’, launched in May 2018. She explained that despite the existence of the Employment Equality Directive 2008/78, 50% of Europeans do not know their rights regarding discrimination. She highlighted that as part of the campaign, workshops on reasonable accommodation were carried in those EU Member States with the biggest employability gap between persons with disabilities and persons without disabilities.

Ms. Magdi Birtha from the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research presented a guide of success stories on reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities, as part of the #EUvsDiscrimination campaign. She explained the methodology of the guide, which contains examples from the public, private and civil society sectors on promising practices of employing persons with disabilities in the open labour market from across the EU. You can access the guide täällä.

An equal access to employment and the labour market must be a priority at both the EU and national levels, as enshrined in Article 27 of the UN CRPD, and other legislative and policy instruments. EUD will continue to underline that inclusive and accessible policies and legislation must present a structural change, including inclusive education and lifelong learning policies. Reasonable accommodation must become the norm, and failure to provide the require accommodation must always constitute discrimination.

EUD would like to underline EUD’s publication on UN CRPD’s Article 27: Work and Employment, which provides a comprehensive overview in the area of employment for deaf persons.