Strasbourg Freedom Drive
9th -12th September 2013
Participant Pack
www.enil.eu/campaigns/freedom-drive
INDEX
Basic Information
- Regional Coordinators
- National Contact Person
- Security
Freedom Drive Agenda
- Freedom Drive Conference
- March to the European Parliament
- Meeting with Members of the Disability Intergroup
- General Assembly
- Simultaneous Workshops
Information about the Strasbourg Freedom Drive
- What is it?
- Who organizes it?
- Past Editions of the Freedom Drive
- 2013 Freedom Drive Campaign
Information about Strasbourg
- Handy Tips
- Transportation
- Food and Accommodation
- Contact Numbers
ENIL Regional Coordinators
North Regional Coordinator Jamie Bolling, Executive Director and North Reginal Coordinator
Email:
West Regional Coordinator Peter Lambreghts, ENIL Board Member and West Regional Coordinator
Email;
East Regional Coordinator Miro Griffins
Email:
South Regional Coordinator Dilyana Deneva
Email:
East Regional Coordinator Grega Fajdiga
Email:
National Strasbourg Freedom Drive Coordinators
· If your country is not listed please contact the Regional Coordinator for your country.
Countries / Contact Person / Contact EmailBelgium / Annelies Van den /
Bosnia / Mimica Zivadinovic /
France / Mathilde Fuchs /
Germany / Andreas Vega /
Ireland / Gary Lee /
Hungary / Eva Caesar /
Latvia / Gatis Caunitis /
Montenegro / Marina Vujacic /
Netherlands / Jan Troost /
Norway / Jo Hakon Grue & Elin Rise /
Slovenia / Gregor Fajdiga /
Sweden / Jamie Bolling /
Security Measures
Badge: In order to participate in activities inside the European Parliament all participants must have a badge. If you registered for the meeting at the Parliament, ENIL will have arranged access for you into the building. Badges will be distributed to the registered participants in advance of the meeting.
Access to the European Parliament Because of security reasons and because we are a huge group, it is essential to be in the European Parliament a couple of hours before a meeting takes place inside. Getting through the security checks could take a very long time, so please follow the meeting times scheduled. Please do not forget your Passport or Identity Card in order to get into the Parliament.
10th Anniversary Strasbourg Freedom Drive
The future of Independent Living, Active Citizenship and Europe 2020
9 – 12 September 2013, Strasbourg (France)
· The Strasbourg Freedom Drive, not just a March to the Parliament, but THE event for Independent Living members and our allies takes place again this year! Make your voice heard - come for the week or just one event. Most important meet your National MEP meetings! Don’t forget the ENIL General Assembly - important for our internal democracy. Sign up as soon as possible. Registration until April 15th will guarantee a place at the Parliament meeting. First to sign up will have priority to the meetings with limited space.
The Salle du Centre Culturel Marcel Marceau will serve as our Head Quarters housing all main meetings except the March and Parliament meeting.
Welcome! – Jamie Bolling – ENIL Executive Director.
Draft Programme
Freedom Drive Conference, Day 1Monday, 9 September 2013
10:00 – 19:00
Location : Salle du Centre Culturel Marcel Marceau
10:00 – 11:00 / Registration with coffee
11:00 – 11:15 / Conference Opening
Vibeke Melroy Melström, ENIL President and
John Evans, ENIL Advisory Group
11:15 - 12:30 / First session – The future of Independent Living
Moderator: Jamie Bolling
What Future do we want, Freedom Drivers?
Jamie Bolling – ENIL Executive Director
Independent Living and International Development Cooperation – Judith Heumann, Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the US State Department
Supporting people with intellectual disabilities to live independently- Gerd Andén, Founder of JAG
Independent Living and the Elderly - Adolf Ratzka, Independent Living Institute Sweden
12:30 – 14:30 / Lunch – Meetings with the Regional Coordinators for coordination of the Freedom Drive Events (four groups)
14:30 – 15:30 / Second session – Rejuvenating the Independent Living movement
Chairperson – Zara Todd
Speakers- Dilyana Deneva, Gatis Caunitis, Miro Griffins
15:30 – 16:00 / Coffee break
16:00 – 17:30 / Simultaneous workshops
Discrimination and the processing of disability-related cases – Berit Vegheim, ULOBA and Professor Lisa Waddington, European Disability Forum Chair in European Disability Law, Maastricht University
Hate crime and disability - Joanna Perry, Hate Crime Officer, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Hijacked definitions and disability policy –Kapka Panayotova, ENIL Board Member
Using EU Structural Funds to support Independent Living –Gabor Toth, European Commission
Freedom Drive Conference, Day 2
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
09:30 – 12:45
Location : Salle du Centre Culturel Marcel Marceau
09:30 – 10:00 / Registration with coffee
10:00 – 11:15 / Third session - Independent Living, disability and politics
Moderator: Kapka Panayotova
Paul Murphy, MEP, Ireland
Kalle Könkkölä, Threshold, Finland (TBC)
Mirko Tomassoni, MP, San Marino
Gordana Rajkov, former MP, CIL Serbia
Virginia Atkinson, IFES – International Foundation for Electorial Systems
11:15 - 12:15 / Fourth session – Disability and Austerity
Consequences of cuts on people with disabilities and ENIL’s lobbying for a Parliament Resolution – Peter Lambreghts, ENIL Board member and Debbie Jolly, DPAC and ENIL Board Member
12:15 – 13:00 / Closing session
European Commission’s perspective on the future of Independent Living – Speaker TBC
Conference Conclusions – Jamie Bolling, ENIL Executive Director
Afternoon meetings with MEPs
(Arranged by the National Coordinators and Freedom Drive participants)
18:00 – 20:00 / Regional experience exchange
Moderated by Regional Team Coordinators
Location: Salle du Centre Culturel Marcel Marceau
Strasbourg Freedom Drive March
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
10:00 – 12:00
Route TBC
10:00 – 12:00 / Platform with motivation speeches at start
March through Strasbourg to the European Parliament
March leader: Peter Lambreghts, ENIL Board Member
Slogan leader: TBC
Meeting at the Parliament with MEPs including members from the Disability Intergroup
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
13:00 – 15:00
Location and agenda TBC
13:00 – 15:00 / Meeting at the European Parliament between Freedom Drivers and MEPs
18:00 – 23:00 / 10 years of Freedom Drive Celebration!
Dinner
Location: Salle du Centre Culturel Marcel Marceau
ENIL General Assembly
Thursday, 12 September 2013
09:00 – 12:30
Location : Salle du Centre Culturel Marcel Marceau
9:00 – 9:55 / Registration
10:00 – 10:10 / Opening address by ENIL President
10:10 – 10:20 / Agreement Agenda and Procedures
10:20 – 10:40 / Minutes from the 2011 General Assembly
10:40 – 11:00 / ENIL Activity report 2011-2013
11:00 –11:15 / ENIL Financial report 2011-2013
11:15 – 11:30 / ENIL Constitution
11:30 –12:00 / ENIL Board election and Nomination Committee Election
12:00 – 12:30 / Official Closing of the General Assembly
Freedom Drive 2013 Follow-up
Thursday, 12 September 2013
14:00 – 18:00
Location : Salle du Centre Culturel Marcel Marceau
14:00 –15:30 / Freedom Drive Evaluation
15:30 – 16:00 / Coffee break
16:00 – 17:30 / ENIL Allies development -
Presentation by Cor Vann Damme, The Road Runner - Cor’s European Trip for Independent Living! How he did it!
17:30 – 18:00 / Closure of the Freedom Drive follow-up
Freedom Drive Youth Meeting
Thursday, 12 September 2013
19:00 – 22:00
Location : Council of Europe
19:00 – 22:00 / ENIL Youth network meeting with Freedom Drivers up to 30 years of age!
About The Strasbourg Freedom Drive 2013
What is it?
ENIL will hold its sixth Freedom Drive in Strasbourg on September 9th-12th 2013. This year’s Strasbourg Freedom Drive celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Freedom Drive. The Strasbourg Freedom Drive has been held every two years since 2003 and provides an opportunity for members of the Independent Living Movement and MEPs to meet for
inspiration and the promotion of Independent Living issues. The Strasbourg Freedom Drive has developed and is now a solidarity event of a few days including the ENIL General Assembly.
Who organises it? The Freedom Drive is an initiative of the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL). ENIL, which was founded in 1989, is a European network of disabled people and forum for independent living organisations and our non-disabled allies. ENIL is a crossdisability organization. All disabled people are welcome to join in our fight for human rights.
What is ENIL’s main aim?
ENIL’s member organizations have defined, introduced, and promoted the concept of Independent Living in Europe since 1981,both in theoretical writings, and also by helping disabled people to organize themselves in grass roots organizations, starting pilot projects, developing training resources and impacting national legislation on personal assistance and direct payments. Independent Living is the daily demonstration of rights-based disability policies. Independent Living is possible through the combination of a set of environmental and individual factors that allow all disabled people to have control over their own lives, with the opportunity to choose and decide where to live, with whom to live and how to live. Access of services should be provided for equal opportunity, allowing disabled people choice in the organisation of daily life. Independent Living requires accessibility of the built environment, accessible transport, availability of technical aids, access to personal assistance and access to community-based services.
Past Freedom Drives; 2011
The central theme of 2011 Freedom Drive was Free Our People Now! In preparation for the Freedom Drive, an analysis was done of the progress in realising the demands of Freedom Drive 2009 and nine new demands were drafted, in order to be presented to Members of the European Parliament. In addition to the demands, ENIL has adopted key Independent Living Definitions, which were distributed to participants and presented to MEPs. Independent Living, Personal Assistance, Deinstitutionalisation and Universal Community Based Services were explained, in order to avoid the same terms being used to define services that are institutional, non-inclusive or segregating, as is often the case.
2013 Freedom Drive Campaign
The European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) is proud to launch the 2013 Strasbourg Freedom Drive Campaign. This year our campaign focuses on the rights of disabled people as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘the CRPD’) and features personal accounts from across Europe of how these rights are being violated. This campaign has replaced the Freedom Drive Demands from the previous years, and aims to show the reality of disabled people, the increasing barriers they face in the times of economic crises and why so many are unable to join us in Strasbourg.
The CRPD aims to ensure that disabled people can enjoy their rights on an equal basis with all other citizens. It sets out minimum standards for protecting and safeguarding a full range of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights for persons with disabilities. The CRPD has been ratified by 24 EU Member States and by the European Union, making it the first international organisation which became a formal party to the Convention.
However, there is a widening gap between the rights of disabled people as guaranteed by the CRPD and the reality. That is why, on the occasion of the 2013 Strasbourg Freedom Drive, ENIL has collected a number of personal accounts from different countries. Each person’s story correlates to an article of the CRPD and shows how adversely the lives of disabled people are being affected because the CRPD is not being fully upheld and implemented in all the Member States. Through this campaign, we tell their stories.
The personal accounts featured in the campaign relate to the following articles of the CRPD:
· Article 4: General Obligations
· Article 5: Equality and non-discrimination
· Article 6: Women with disabilities
· Article 9: Accessibility
· Article 12: Legal Capacity – Equal Recognition before the Law
· Article 14: Liberty and Security of Person
· Article 19: Living Independently and being included in the Community
· Article 20: Personal Mobility
· Article 24; Education
· Article 27: Work and Employment
Now is the time to close the gap between the rights set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the reality. ENIL therefore calls on Members of the European Parliament and the European Union institutions to ensure that these rights are fully upheld for all disabled people and for the CRPD to be fully implemented in all the Member States.
Freedom Drive 2013 March Route!
Where does the March start?
This year’s march starts at Place de la Republique. From there, we will make our way to the European Parliament. A representative of the Parliament will then be presented with the 2013 Freedom Drive Campaign.
If you can please bring banners, megaphones, drums and other props to make the Freedom Drive loud and clear! Chants and songs in different languages are also welcome.
Freedom Drivers will be meeting at Place de la Republique at 10.00 am on Wednesday 11th September 2013. There will be a platform with motivation speeches at the beginning of the march.
Handy Tips
· Keep your passport or national ID on your person at all times. You will NOT get into the European Parliament without your passport or national ID.
· Don’t forget to bring your visa/mastercard
· Don’t forget to set up the roaming function on your phone before you leave your own country.
· Don’t forget your disabled parking badge if you are driving
· On check in at airports please request that your chair is handled very carefully, a good idea is to bubble wrap it (‘take care of this, it’s my legs, not a bag of garbage’ – this quote came from a travel blog for disabled travelers). Some people have suggested that you go as far as the planes doors in your chair and then get it stowed away. Some people said they had brought their chairs on board with them. It’s always worth requesting!
· According to your disability, bring any appropriate equipment needed to enjoy & complete your travel such as canes, rolling walkers, wheelchairs, audio phones and mobility scooters.