Canary Islands disability rights need real support

In the Canary Islands, people with disabilities can have rights on paper but lack the support to use them: campaigners raise that gap at a congress in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, on 22 October. The Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI) says recognising rights is not enough. Its regional groups meet on Thursday to discuss how those rights work in different places.

Carmen Laucirica, who leads CERMI in the Canary Islands, says where a person lives shapes their experience of disability. She calls for particular attention to the islands’ remote location and the added barriers of life across several islands.

Luis Cayo Pérez Bueno, CERMI’s national president, says the gap between rights in law and support in daily life leaves people with disabilities and their families frustrated. He credits their collective campaigning, alongside work with public bodies, with driving legal, political and social change. He also praises the United Nations convention on disability rights, but says those rights must work in practice.

Pérez Bueno wants public decisions to account for the Canary Islands’ geography through targeted measures. Living on an island, he says, must not become a reason for people with disabilities to miss out on inclusion and wellbeing.

Topics: Social affairs

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com