myPart wants to enhance political participation of people with intellectual disabilities.
Article 29 of the UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities states that people with disabilities have the right to fully participate in political and public life. But still, people with intellectual disabilities face severe limitations in exercising their political rights due to various situations. One of the reasons is that there is a lack of appropriate and accessible material or information.
Very often the educational pathways of people with intellectual disabilities lead to segregated settings after their compulsory schooling. Thus, people with intellectual disabilities do not have the chance to acquire knowledge in civic education since this is not thematised in the settings they are living and working in.
One of the most important requirements for political participation is to understand oneself as a citizen with the right to actively participate in public and political life.
The project emphasises on the role of all people as citizens and strengthens this understanding amongst people with intellectual disabilities and amongst society.
Within the myPart project we aim to develop educational material to increase citizenship competences, knowledge and skills of people with intellectual disabilities in terms of civic and political practises. Apart of this the interests and needs of people with intellectual disabilities to politically participate are considered and particular recommendations will be spread on regional, national and European levels.
The leading principles in the project are participation and inclusion. Thus, the target group is involved in the development of all products and results throughout the whole project’s lifetime. Therefore, each partner establishes a so-called Cooperation Group. This group consists of at least two people with intellectual disabilities and the project partners. This group meets regularly to develop the project outputs and to reflect on the outcomes and the initiatives of the project.
The partnership also wants to draw attention to the fact that many people with intellectual disabilities still are excluded from their right to vote and that accessible voting procedures need to be implemented to ensure full political participation of this target group.
Project’s main target groups
- People with intellectual disabilities
- Trainers working with people with intellectual disabilities
- Public authorities and politicians
Other target groups
- People working with people with intellectual disabilities (assistants, social workers, supporting staff)
- Institutions in the field of adult education
Why is Political Participation and Self-Advocacy important?
It is important that people with intellectual disabilities are active member s of society.
It is important for people with intellectual disabilities to have a voice in the elections. The right to vote is for everyone.
Self-Advocates are people with intellectual disabilities who stand up for their right and the rights of others.
The Motto of the self-advocates is: “Nothing about us, without us!”.
Watch here what some self-advocates from Hungary think about their work: