Universal Periodic Review

Provide for free sign language courses for hearing parents of deaf children and deaf parents of hearing children (CODA)

Proponent:

Remarks to progress by Liga (last modified Dec 31, 2024):

The current approach to promoting the participation of people with disabilities and their representative organisations has significant weaknesses. These weaknesses result from various factors, such as an inadequate understanding of full and effective participation and the insufficient provision of resources for participation processes. In addition, political participation in Austria is highly formalised and has grown historically, which gives advantages to already established and politically networked civil society organisations. However, not enough systematic attention has been paid to carrying out targeted capacity building in accordance with the requirements of the UN CRPD.   It would be desirable if a process similar to the participatory drafting of the 2nd Adult Protection Act had been set up by the Ministry of Justice in 2016 (Justice website: https://www.bmj.gv.at/themen/Zivilrecht/Erwachsenenschutz/Das-neue-Erwachsenenschutzrecht-im-%C3%9Cberblick.html). In fact, from the perspective of civil society, the NAP II cannot yet be considered a sufficient success because it does not sufficiently realise the goal of effective social integration of people with disabilities.