Persons with disabilities should naturally be part of the open society

The full speech of Minister Çitaku:

I would like to start my speech with a reminder, when we talk about people with disabilities, we do not talk for people who have a “disease”, which is often misunderstood by the society, but we are dealing with people who have a sort of a disability, which comes as a result of circumstances that are beyond their control. Due to this reason, we as a society and institutions, must take under consideration the social and human aspects, regarding the human rights respectively persons with disabilities, the rights that they naturally should enjoy but also provided by international and national legislation. It should never happen that in a democratic country, such persons are isolated from social activities.

We need to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy all the rights that belong to them in an open society, providing equal opportunities and protection from the state. We should jointly fight all the prejudices which make it impossible for persons with disabilities to participate actively and fully in our open and democratic society.

Access to education and state grants should be a top priority. At these conferences, we need to share our experiences on the latest knowledge and tools developments in order to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. They should be treated with dignity and should be encourage the participation of the family, which helps mostly in decision-making about their future. In our efforts to promote the rights of persons with disabilities, we must remember that the families of these persons, play a very important role in their improvement. We need to talk with parents in such a way, that they, as a starting point should not see the presence of a disabled person in the family as something offensive. We must provide adequate training for parents and provide tools which will enable them to give their children a normal life.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have a challenge, to educate our people that persons with disabilities are human beings, in the full meaning of the word. Most members of our society still fail to make this crucial distinction and due to this we have a major challenge ahead.

As every society in the world, we have among us people with disabilities, but persons with disabilities do not pose problem for us, our biggest problem is that society at certain extent continues to treat people with disabilities with prejudice and humiliation, while in some communities they can also be isolated from life.

In the end, I would like to emphasize that: our social and institutional obligation is to push forward the agenda for persons with disabilities. Also, to build a society that is completely open, to mobilize support for the rights, dignity and welfare of persons with disabilities. And, I am very optimistic that we will achieve our goals to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.

Thank you !