Polio Plus Launched the �Parking Lot Named Desire� Campaign

30 September 2005

The PolioPlus association launched the campaign for promotion of the rights of mobility and access for the persons with special needs, aimed to provide more parking spaces for the persons with special needs in Macedonia.

Disabled persons are participants in the traffic with full rights.

The campaign was officially launched yesterday, at the seminar held in Skopje, and will be implemented also in Tetovo, Gostivar, Prilep, Bitola, Ohrid and Struga.

At this moment, with the exception of several parking lots in Skopje, there are no parking spaces reserved for the vehicles driven by persons with disabilities. In those place where such parking spaces are marked and exist, the citizens disobey the traffic signs and abuse those parking spaces.

The goal of this campaign is to raise the public awareness and responsibility about the respect of the right to mobility and the realization of this right for the disabled persons. The project envisions active participation of the local self-government, the traffic police and the community in general.

The campaign was supported by the Mayor of Skopje, Trifun Kostovski, who announced that the city already works on construction of new parking lots that will secure parking space for the disabled, as well as negotiations with owners of about 700 buildings and facilities in Skopje, who promised to render them more accessible for the disabled persons.

The project is supported by the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights of the European Commission, and the British Embassy in Skopje.