Croatians with intellectual disabilities not included into society

OSI

18 November 2005

Zagreb and Budapest � 18 November 2005. Croatian legislation addressing the needs of people with intellectual disabilities (people whose learning ability is significant lower than average) is not in line with international standards. This is a finding of the monitoring report Rights of people with intellectual disabilities: access to education and employment in Croatia, released today. The report was produced by the Open Society Institute, in cooperation with the Croatian Association for the Promotion of Inclusion.

Contrary to internationally recognised best practice, in Croatia only children with mild intellectual disabilities are given the right to be educated in mainstream schools. Children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities are instead directed to �special� schools or institutions. In practice, however, even the inclusion of children with mild intellectual disabilities in mainstream schools is very limited, and the level of support in most schools is inadequate.

�In Croatia, too much depends upon teachers� individual personality and attitudes. Parents should not have to take their chances on finding a teacher who will work with their child� said Ljiljana Pintarić Mlinar from the Zagreb Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, author of the OSI report.
The OSI report urges the Croatian Government to adopt and implement new inclusive legislation, mainstreaming education for children of all disability levels, and allowing them to be full members of society right from the start. It also calls on the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports to ensure sufficient resources and support to enable children with all levels of intellectual disabilities to access mainstream schools, throughout the country.

The Croatian Association for Promoting Inclusion does offer supported employment services for 40 people. The report released today calls on the Croatian Government to incorporate supported employment into general labour legislation and implement it throughout the country.

According to Borka Teodorovic, President of the Croatian Association for Promoting Inclusion: �employers are reluctant to hire people with disabilities because they are concerned about increased costs and lower efficiency. The Croatian Government however has not yet engaged in any campaign addressed at making employers aware of the potential people with intellectual disabilities have. To help people with intellectual disability finding jobs, the Ministry of the Economy, Labour, and Entrepreneurship should also extend incentive programmes, currently available only for full-time positions, to include part-time work, which is better suited to many people with intellectual disabilities�.

This report is part of a series of 14 country monitoring reports monitoring �Access to Education and Employment for People with Intellectual Disabilities� throughout Europe. The reports were prepared by EUMAP, the EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program of the Open Society Institute, in cooperation with MHI, OSI�s Mental Health Initiative.

All reports are available online at www.eumap.org.