Self-advocacy Charter National Platform of Self-Advocates 2020

The rights of persons with disabilities are guaranteed by the UN Convention adopted in 2007.

We believe that:

• Every person has equal rights guaranteed by law. We want our rights to be protected and not to feel discriminated against.
• We have the right to be safe – at home, on the street, at school, at the doctor.
• Everyone deserves to be part of a family.
• We decide what others can know about our lives. No one can violate our privacy.
• We have the right to decide where, with whom and how to live. And the right to receive support in order to be independent.
• We have the right to work, the right to choose what to work for and to receive decent pay for our work.
• We have the right to education and to be taught in a way that we can understand.
• We have the right to receive quality health care like others.
• We have the right to access residential buildings and public services, as well as to receive information in a way that we understand.
• We have an equal right to vote, as well as to participate in the development of policies that affect us.
• We have the right to be treated like any other person.
• We have the right to play sports and create art like everyone else and spend our free time in a way that we like.

The Charter has been drafted and promoted in the framework of the Project "Staying Connected". Inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities in public life, funded by BAPID (Bulgarian Association of the Persons with Intellectual Disabilities).

Photo: Marieta Petrova - former chairwoman of the National Platform of Self-Advocates in Bulgaria. She was one of the inspiring participants in the national forum of UNICEF, dedicated to young people with disabilities in Bulgaria "With eyes open for all", which was held on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.