Global-Report-Living-Colour-dr2-2

Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities
GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY
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continue to make more services available to children
if the child lives outside the family home (institutions,
foster homes, long term care facilities). Despite the
rights of the child to a family, public policy continues
to force families to give up their children to the state
in order to access basic supports. For adults with
intellectual disabilities, existing disability and/or
income supports are either not available or
insufficient to support people to become
independent.
There is a clear need for investment in the provision of
disability related services and supports to children
and adults with intellectual disabilities. In high
income countries, these services and supports need
to be separated from eligibility for income supports
and they must be flexible and portable. In low
income countries, few government-funded supports
exist and some inconsistent and limited supports are
delivered by International NGOs (INGOs).
Governments must develop a clear overarching policy
consistent with the CRPD and in particular the right to
live and be included in the community which guides
development spending and to which INGOs must be
accountable.
‰ The major source of support and care which
people with intellectual disabilities receive is from
their families yet families receive little or no
support from communities or governments.
The preamble to the CRPD and Article 23 clearly
recognizes that families require supports to assist
their family member with a disability to realize their
rights. Nowhere is this more important than in the
realization of the right to live and be included in the
community. Families are the main vehicle through
which this right may be achieved. Families are the
first and often main advocates for inclusion in
education, access to services, employment and
housing. Yet public policy in most jurisdictions has