The Council of Europe has condemned France for not respecting disability rights in accessing education, healthcare and public transport, following a complaint lodged in 2018. Whilst not legally binding, the decision piles on the pressure some 500 days before the Paris Olympics, which thousands of disabled people are expected to attend.
In failing to make transport, buildings and healthcare fully available to all, France has violated the social charter on the rights of disabled people, the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), announced on Monday.
The Strasbourg-based ECSR ruled that France had violated four articles – 11.1, 15.1, 15.3 and 16 of the charter.
France had not done enough to simplify daily life for people with disabilities, notably regarding access to buildings, transport, schooling children and healthcare.
It found that insufficient access to clinics had resulted in breast cancer being more prevalent among women with disabilities.
Disability benefits for adults remain under the poverty threshold.
Families in vulnerable situation
The ESCR also identified a shortage of places for disabled persons in reception centres that had led hundreds of families to move to Belgium.
It noted inadequate inclusion of disabled children in mainstream schools, and a "high number of cases of refusal of care".
Such problems lead "many families to live in precarious conditions" it concluded.
"In the absence of effective access to independent living in the community for people with disabilities, many families have been placed in a vulnerable situation", the ECSR wrote, calling for "immediate action" to put an end to "intolerable injustices".
Important decision
The complaint was filed in 2018 by the European Disability Forum for Inclusion Europe on behalf of four French associations – Unapei, APF France handicap, Unafam and FNATH.
Pascale Ribes, president of APF France handicap, welcomed a "very important decision".
"It should be a spur for the French public authorities to finally change their paradigm," she said, pointing to successive governments that for years have had a "mistaken conception of disability, focused on care rather than rights" and on "social handouts".
🚩In its decision on the merits in European Disability Forum (EDF) and Inclusion Europe v. France the #ECSR concluded that there is:
— Council of Europe Social Rights (@CoESocialRights) April 17, 2023
🔹Violation of Article 15§3; 15§1; 11§1 and 16 of the #EuropeansSocialCharter.
Learn more 👇https://t.co/vRdfDlRA3n
More than 350,000 disabled visitors are expected to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games, but only 3 percent of Paris metro stations are currently accessible to wheelchair users.
The Paris transport network (RATP) has promised that 32 out of the 300 metros will be accessible in 2024, and all of the new lines will be wheelchair-adapted.
Keeping up the pressure
President Emmanuel Macron is to present an ambitious plan on 26 April as part of the National Disability Conference (CNH) at the Élysée Palace. A number of new measures around the themes of solidarity and autonomy for people with disabilities are to be introduced.
"I cannot imagine France doing nothing" after the Council of Europe’s decision, "it is unthinkable", Ribes said.
While the Council of Europe’s decisions are not legally binding, they can provide wake up calls.
In 2014, ESCR condemned France for inadequately providing for people with autism. A number of autism programmes followed in its wake.
