This project is entitled “Practical Guide on Political Participation for Disabled Women” and is partly funded by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, through the “Europe for Citizens” Programme.

The main aims of the project are to increase awareness of the importance of political participation at EU level within disabled women in particular, and at the same time to provide them with instruments and information for facilitating this participation. The main project activities are:

1. Research phase – Collection of evidence from disabled women about their knowledge and experiences on the topic.
2. Design of informative materials – Based on real needs of the disabled.
3. Training and dissemination activities – Focused on NGO’s and public organizations dealing with disabled people.

The partnership of the project is composed by the Spanish FEPAMIC – www.fepamic.org, the Greek DISABILITY NOW – www.disabled.gr and the Austrian INSTITUT FBI – www.uibk.ac.at/fbi/. Both FEPAMIC and DISABILITY NOW are organizations which represent and deal with disabled people while INSTITUT FBI is an experienced organisation on research and gender issues.

The project will last from September 2009 to September 2010.

To whom is this guide addressed and what is its purpose

This guide intends to be an informative
resource to be used by the disabled, especially disabled women, and citizens in general to increase their awareness about the importance of political participation at EU level. This guide also intends to increase competences and to provide a general framework for being more involved in public EU issues. The guide intends to be a practical instrument to introduce to disabled citizens the main participative instruments both from the EU Parliament and the Commission.

The Union is based, amongst others on some basic principles: equality, participation and democracy. The promotion of an active citizenship is one of the main EU aims. For this reason it has established mechanisms which guarantee the involvement of
citizens in public issues of the Union. The first thing to say is there is not a specific way or channel for political participation addressed specifically to disabled women, the existing channels of political participation are the same for all citizens, independent of sex, age and personal circumstances.

Besides this, and according to the principle of non-discrimination, different organizations at public and private level try to provide specific resources and encourage the participation of disadvantaged groups.

The problem of political participation in modern societies is a complex problem. Citizens, in general, are not interested in political participation and even less so at European level. The participation in European elections, which is the most known participative instrument, is always very little. Women and the disabled are under-represented in the European institutions and, therefore, less interested and less involved than men and people without disability.

What do citizens, the disabled and disabled women really think about political European participation?

• The EU is far from the ordinary citizens worries.
• Politicians are more concerned about their own issues. The issues of politicians are different from those of the citizens.
• Political participation would not make any difference. In most of the cases the opinions and views of citizens are not considered seriously.
• Direct and usable ways to express your opinions and your ways to the EU do not exist or are not known.
• In most of the cases for a disabled person it is better to contact the national and even regional or local politicians.

This guide intends to contribute to changing the thoughts mentioned above about the European participation and provide practical and useful information for facilitating the political participation:

“Political participation is the only way to express your views and make your problems heard…When you influence decisions you can be sure that the outcome will fit your needs (…). It means being active and not passive to other people’s decisions…” (Extract from an interview with an European disabled woman)

“I believe that participation at EU level means civic participation that involves issues regarding Europe as a whole. People tend to forget that this is one world, one human kind, one planet that is hosting people with the exact same needs. This kind of participation can actually result in a higher quality of life…” (Extract from an interview to a European disabled woman)

“It is always better to raise your voice and demand the quality of life you chose for yourself than let the others show you the way. It is all about being active and taking control of your life…” (Extract from an interview to a European disabled woman)

“Political participation should be the basis for the real democracy, but in my opinion now citizens are not concerned about public issues, they are concentrated always on private issues. I also think that real democracy requires new and usable ways to give your opinion about the public issues and policies….The involvement of citizens is necessary but most of the times citizens do not have the required time or information or possibilities to be devoted to such issues…” (Extract from an interview to a European disabled woman)

Key principles

Before starting, some basic key principles that need to be internalized:

1. Participation is the basis of democracy. There is no democracy if citizens do not participate in public issues. Your involvement is always required and necessary. Certainly participation will require from you additional efforts, but it is the only way for you to be heard.
2. You may think that Europe is far away from you, but you should remember that 85 % of the European decisions from the EU Parliament or the EU Commission affect the daily life of the citizens. The European legislation is applied always at national level through national legislation.
3. Participation is a main aim of the EU policies and therefore the EU offers a wide range of possibilities for participation. The European Elections are the most important form of political participation at EU level but it is not the only one: e-forums, consultations, petitions to the European Parliament and other services are available.
4. Representative organizations of the disabled or women, public or private, can play a major role on the promotion of an active citizenships within their members. So becoming involved in representatives organization of the disabled at national or trans-national level is a good idea for increasing information and for getting opportunities to get involved in European issues.

Background

The elections and other participating activities are an exercise of basic democratic participation and a basic civic exercise.
The European Union thinks that it is important to activate civil dialogue between citizens and European public institutions and therefore provides a permanent channel of dialogue and consultation with citizens.
NGO’ s are an important part of civil society and can play a major role in the promotion of political participation among the most excluded population groups. Therefore, the promotion of participation in elections and the use of other participation channels should be essential to its mission.
NGO s are a key actor for this, but it is essential that networks are better articulated and to include the topic of political participation as key topic in the organizations.

Let’s have a look to the main existing channels for political participation at your disposal. We will see that the most important participative instruments come from the EU Parliament and the Commission

Dissemination material

Please choose the following image to open the pdf format of the contents of the Practical Guide on Political Participation for Disabled Women (Greek version):

You can download the project’s poster and brochure (Greek versions) by clicking on the links below:

• EUPARTGUIDE poster
• EUPARTGUIDE brochure