FIRST NATIONAL PUBLIC CAMPAIGN ON ACCESSIBILITY IN
ROMANIA
On July 11, 2003 the International Seminar on “Accessibility – a matter of
dignity for the whole society” took place in Bucharest, Romania.
This seminar marked the end of the second stage of the First Public Campaign
on Accessibility – “Towns for All” developed on national level in the period
between 2001-2005 by the Association of Persons with Neuromotor Disability from
Romania – AHNR.
Developed under the auspices of the European Year of People with Disabilities
-2003, this stage of the campaign – focusing on making accessible all the public
buildings, housings, outdoor environment and transportation – has been initially
launched within 9 Zone Centers across the country (Arad, Argeº, Bucureºti,
Caraº-Severin, Cluj, Hunedoara, Ialomiþa, Mehedinþi ºi Zalãu) succeeding with
the support of the Association of Municipalities from Romania (AMR) to be
extended to 21municipalities counties.
In the opening of the seminar the official Message addressed by Mr. Ion
ILIESCU, President of Romania was presented. Beside Mr. Mark WENIG – Press
Attaché of the Embassy of the United States of America and Ms. Mihaela
PARASCHIVESCU – PAO Assistant of the American Embassy, Mr. Pierre POUPARD –
UNICEF Representative in Romania, Mr. Dinu PANAIT – Counsellor of the Minister
of Transportation, Constructions and Tourism, Mr. Constantin STOENESCU –
President of the National Authority for Persons with Disabilities,
representatives of governmental bodies and nongovernmental organizations from
Romania, the seminar was honoured by the presence of the Executive Board Members
of the International Federation of Persons with Physical Disabilities – FIMITIC
– namely by the presidents and vice-presidents of the national organizations of
persons with disabilities from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Italy,
Slovenia and Switzerland. Present were also representatives of the Society of
Disabled People in the Republic of Moldavia – SIRM – (member of FIMITIC).
17 speakers from Romania and from abroad exposed alternatively the situation
of accessibility in their countries.
Through this Campaign we succeeded to:
- extend the Campaign on Accessibility from 9 to 21 counties
- begin the process of making public buildings accessible, to adapt the side
walks and special parking places, to install phone booths on the streets
within 21 counties;
- set up and promote relationships for cooperation between the different
governmental bodies responsible for accessibility (Prime Minister,
Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Housing, Ministry of European
Integration, Ministry of Public Administration, National Authority for Persons
with Disabilities, Association of Municipalities from Romania, National Union
of the County Councils from Romania, Federation of Local Authorities from
Romania) in order to respect and enforce both on the local and the national
level the law and the Norms for Adaptation of Civil Buildings and Outdoor
Environments to the Needs of Persons with Disabilities endorsed by the
Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Housing.
- involve 230 volunteers – students/pupils/parents – and to train them for
all actions of the campaign
- promote the image of persons with disabilities from Romania raising
awareness of the representatives of ministries, national an local public
authorities, institutes, NGOs, media and a large number of citizens on the
importance and rights of persons with disabilities to have access to medical
care, education, employment, information and to the life of the community they
belong to.
These results demonstrated that Romania could become an accessible country
for persons with disabilities in the coming years.
Ms. Marija STIGLIC, President of FIMITIC, presented to AHNR the
FIMITICÂ’s Gold Medal in recognition of the associationÂ’s contribution for
promotion of civil rights of persons with disabilities in Romania and of
outstanding achievements in the socio-political sector by the successful
imposition of high standards of professionalism in the realization of all its
programs initiated to integrate persons with disabilities into society on
national and international level.
The Manifesto of Accessibility – adopted by the member associations of AHNR
and the Association of the National Network of Information and Collaboration for
the Integration in the Community of Children with Special Educative Needs from
Romania (A-RENINCO-R), partners within the project “Towns for all” –
presented at the end of the meeting was agreed by the International Federation
of Persons with Physical Disability (FIMITIC), by all nongovernmental
organization of persons with disabilities, specialists and experts participating
in the seminar.
Press office of AHNR
View
the photographs from the Event
