On 4 December, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Expert Group on transition from institutional to community-based care, will launch the findings of FRA's research at a seminar in Brussels. It will be an opportunity to reflect on the findings and to discuss how this evidence can support policy makers and practitioners to implement the transition from institutional to community living successfully.
Watch the event livestream from 9:00 CET on 4 December >>
Both the EU and its Member States have committed to realising the right to live independently and be included in the community, in line with their obligations under Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Yet many people – including people with disabilities – continue to live in institutions, segregated from their communities. This makes achieving the transition from institutional to community-based care, or deinstitutionalisation, an urgent challenge.
FRA wanted to contribute to making steps to implement deinstitutionalisation more effective by capturing concrete evidence of what is and what is not working on the ground. To do this, the agency conducted extensive fieldwork research with actors involved in the deinstitutionalisation process for persons with disabilities in five EU Member States (Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland, Italy and Slovakia).
The seminar immediately follows the conclusion of the European Day of Persons with Disabilities conference, hosted by the European Commission and the European Disability Forum.
The event will be held in English, with interpretation into French, German, Italian and Spanish. International Sign interpretation and speech-to-text will be available.