People with Disabilities Rally for Accessibility to Personal Assistance in Poland

People with disabilities and their supporters are demanding access to personal assistance in Poland, which they say is a matter of life and death for some. Last week in Warsaw, dozens of people with disabilities and their supporters came together to protest and carry a symbolic coffin to the presidential palace, urging authorities to adopt a law that guarantees access to personal assistance. Personal assistance is defined as one-on-one support that a person with a disability may need for day-to-day living. This assistance enables many people with disabilities to perform elementary activities like going out for a walk, attending restaurants, working, studying, and meeting friends and family, among other daily activities.

The state of personal assistance in Poland is not the best, with only 0.6% of people with disabilities benefitting from the program, according to an analysis by the Polish Supreme Audit Office. Currently, personal assistance is available through central government grants disbursed to local authorities and non-governmental organizations. Despite the potentially life-saving assistance, the service is not available on a consistent basis, causing people with disabilities to opt for segregated residential institutions where they lose their autonomy.

The European Network on Independent Living(ENIL) representative, Łukasz Orylski, who himself relies on a personal assistant, remarked, “access to personal assistance is a matter of life and death for some people with disabilities.” He added that the proposed bill by the authorities (after meeting with representatives of organizations of people with disabilities in March) fails to go far enough, and some provisions are not in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Poland ratified in 2012.

The President’s office announced last week that the draft bill would be presented for public consultation as soon as possible and taken to parliament before the fall elections. However, activists are concerned about the apathy towards discussing the sitution and think that if the proposed bill is not considered before the forthcoming elections, it could be discarded altogether.

Article 19 of the UN CRPD guarantees the right of all people with disabilities to live independently and calls on governments to provide community-based services, including personal assistance, necessary for that right to be practiced. Therefore, the Polish authorities should listen to the demands of the protesters and guarantee people with disabilities the requisite support that will enable them to live independently.

In conclusion, the Polish authorities should act expeditiously in addressing the demands being made by people with disabilities and their supporters. The current situation highlights the need for states to protect human rights and ensure that no one is left behind, particularly those in vulnerable situations. We should create a world that is inclusive and accessible to everyone, and authorities should ensure access to essential services and personal support to enable people with disabilities to live like everyone else.

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