Disability rights

Ecuador decriminalized euthanasia on Wednesday, becoming the second Latin American country to allow the procedure, in response to a lawsuit brought by a terminally ill patient.

With seven of its nine judges voting in favor, the country's Constitutional Court opened the door for doctors to help an untreatable patient die without going to jail.

Silver Thread, an association campaigning for dignified old age, has collected the required 5,000 signatures to submit a bill on assisted suicide to the National Assembly well before the deadline.

In its announcement on 5 June, the association said it expected the considerable support for the bill to send a clear message to decision-makers in the National Assembly.

With a simple scan of their Digital Disability Card, disabled people can now have immediate and free access to the archaeological sites and museums that are under the jurisdiction of the Culture Ministry, without the need for a ticket. Their companions will also be enabled free access in the same way, where this is provided for.

People with disabilities can receive up to BGN 20,000 to start their own business through a competition of the Agency for People with Disabilities. It will finance up to BGN 740,000 and proposals for the creation of Sheltered Employment Centers.

With millions under lockdown, many non-disabled people are experiencing, for the first time, how it feels to have external barriers preventing you from participating in everyday life.

The authorities in New Zealand have voted to legitimize euthanasia, paving the way for the issue to be brought to a referendum by next year, BGNES reported.

The law allowing terminally ill people to claim medically assisted death was passed by 69 to 51 votes in its last reading ending years of heated parliamentary debate on the topic.

The Greek Ombudsman's first-ever report on people with disabilities is a scathing condemnation of the country's failure to ensure that their fundamental rights are being upheld.

Part of the social services will be free after the National Assembly adopts a completely new Social Services Act.

The Hacettepe Center for Vocational Rehabilitation in the capital Ankara, which trains individuals with disabilities to improve personal skills and practices that will enable them to find jobs, has so far provided trainings for 150 people with disabilities since its establishment two years ago.

Several disabled people's and human rights organisations, Inclusion Europe, the European Network on Independent Living, the Centre for Peace Studies Croatia, Human Rights House Zagreb, and Human Rights Watch, on Wednesday said in a letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic that Croatia should stop confining children and adults in institutions.