Campaign launched to send report to U.N. on government policy adversely affecting disabled children

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Campaign launched to send report to U.N. on government policy adversely affecting disabled children

About 50 people from across the country, including parents of disabled children and staff working at facilities for the disabled, on February 18 took part in a meeting in Tokyo calling for the voices of the disabled to be heard by the United Nations.

With the self-support assistance law that came into effect last April, parents of disabled children are required to pay 10 percent of the cost for services their children receive.

Criticizing this government measure for violating "the right of the disabled child to special care" stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the meeting confirmed that they will send a report on the situation in which disabled children's rights are infringed to the U.N. Committee on the Right of the Child in the fall of 2008.

A mother of a disabled child said from the floor, "Before the law was enacted, it cost us 2,200 yen a month for my child to receive services. But now we have to pay around 10,000 yen each month. The government says it is only 10 percent, but the law is really harsh for us."
- Akahata, February 19, 2007