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Wheelchair users demand equal rights at rally in Minsk

Wheelchair users held a rally in a remote park in Minsk on May 5 to demand greater opportunities and rights and express protest against discrimination.

Some 100 people with disability attended the sanctioned rally, which took place in Peoples’ Friendship Park. The crowd adopted an appeal urging Alyaksandr Lukashenka to ensure that the constitutional rights of wheelchair users and bedridden people are respected.

They also demanded that the government sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and take efforts to create a handicap-accessible environment.

In addition, the protesters demanded that the government increase social benefits for the disabled and allow people with first-degree disabilities who have the status of sole entrepreneur to hire workers not only from among immediate family members.

According to rights activists, disabled people in Belarus have poor access to education and employment and lack the infrastructure for taking care of their basic needs.

There are roughly 504,500 disabled people, including up to 22,000 wheelchair users, in Belarus at present. //BelaPAN