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Disability

in Greece

Enabling Environment

Legislation, policy, resources, coordination, data

Bottlenecks

Limited statistics and disaggregated data as well as qualitative information on children with disabilities, including on key topics related to the rights of the child, such as welfare and protection, education, and living conditions.
Limited available information on children with disabilities in institutions.

CRC Recommendations (2022)

18(f) Strengthen data collection on Roma children, children with disability, children in street situations, children in situations of migration, including those in irregular situations, child victims of human trafficking, and other groups of children in vulnerable situations.
20(b) Ensure that the participatory structures, including the Youth Parliament and Student Councils, represent children with distinct ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, as well as children with disabilities.
31(b) Ensure that children are separated from their family only if it is in their best interests and after a comprehensive assessment of their situation; and that poverty, disabilities or a lack of identification documents are never the sole justification for family separation.
34(a) Organize the collection of data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability and region, and develop an efficient and harmonized system for early detection and intervention including for children with autism and developmental disorders, in order to facilitate access for children with all types of disabilities to education and health, social protection and support services;
34(b) Strengthen the implementation of the National Deinstitutionalization Strategy and Action Plan and urgently close down the Children’s Care Centre in Lechania.
34(d) Urgently investigate and prosecute the reports of violence in child care institutions, including through their ad-hoc and systematic monitoring.

National Actions

Ensure equitable access to education.

Supply

Adequately staffed services, facilities, information, commodities

Bottlenecks

Lack of tailored services for children with disabilities hinders their full social inclusion and engagement.
Access to services is challenging due to lack of appropriate infrastructure.
Families do not have sufficient support to care for children with disabilities. This may lead children to be excluded from society, placed in foster care or abandoned.
Lack of specialized health services for children with severe disabilities and their families.
Social integration remains a challenge, with early childhood development being an important aspect of social integration.
Lack of adequate human resources in nurseries and kindergartens perpetuates the exclusion of children with disabilities.

CRC Recommendations (2022)

18(a) Intensify its measures to ensure that Roma children, children belonging to the Muslim minority in Thrace, children with disabilities, refugee and asylum-seeking children, children in situations of migration and children of single and/or undocumented migrant parents have effective access to food security, healthcare, education, housing, water, sanitation, social services and a decent standard of living, and ensure regular and systematic monitoring and impact assessment of the measures taken.
31(g) Develop emergency care solutions to end the practice of hospitalisation of children in need of temporary care; ensure that the provision of care meets the needs of children belonging to ethnic or religious minorities, children with behavioural, psychological and/or psychosocial issues, children with disabilities, children in conflict with the law and unaccompanied migrant children.
34(c) Address the root causes of the institutionalisation of children with disabilities, including by strengthening the support for parents in urban, rural, remote and insular areas; ensuring the availability of and access to day care, home nursing and relief services; allocating adequate budgets and personnel trained to work with children with disabilities and meet their specific needs; developing community and outpatient health-care services with an adequate number of trained healthcare professionals; and providing opportunities and facilities to leisure and play.
38(a) Remove barriers to school enrolment and ensure that children with disabilities, Roma children, asylum-seeking and refugee children, unaccompanied migrant children, are promptly integrated into, retained and finish the mainstream preschool, primary and secondary education, regardless of their place of residence.
38(d) Operationalise and mainstream inclusive education for children with disabilities, including by allocating adequate and dedicated financial, human and technical resources to schools, employing an adequate number of teachers and teaching assistants, developing teaching programs and methods and educational materials and ensuring reasonable accommodation at school; and seek the assistance of UNICEF in this regard.
38(h) Allocate adequate financial, human and technical resources to expand the coverage, capacity and monitoring of pre-school education and ensure access thereto, including in rural and remote areas, for children with disabilities, Roma children, asylum-seeking and refugee children and unaccompanied children, and to ensure an adequate number of bilingual pre-schools in the Muslim minority in Thrace.

National Actions

Improve and adapt infrastructure in public spaces to address the needs of children with disabilities.
Strengthen the capacities of professionals in education, social welfare, and other services that engage with children with disabilities.

Demand

Financial access and social behavioural drivers

Bottlenecks

Persisting prejudice, stereotypes, stigmatization and discriminatory practices towards children with disabilities often excludes them from society.

CRC Recommendations

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National Actions

Raise awareness and shape new perceptions about the integration of students with disabilities in the societies they live in.