Active Citizenship as Political Participation
Channel: DISCIT Research
Date: 2015-03-27

Work Package 9: Active Citizenship as Political Participation
First, WP9 gives a better understanding of the variety of established structures, practices and patterns of political participation and representation for and of persons with disabilities, and the roles of disabled persons’ organisations (DPOs) in processes of deliberation, decision and implementation of disability policy in selected European countries and internationally, as a step to make DPOs’ participation in policy formation full and effective.

Second, WP9 generates new knowledge about the actual use of the new international opportunity structures that enable DPOs to side-step the European and national levels and work at the level of the UN as a first phase of a process to finally achieve reforms on European, national, federal, regional and local levels respectively, as a step to more effective use of these opportunity structures.

Third, WP9 achieves original insight into the interactions between existing welfare models (or regimes) and the involvement of DPOs in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in selected European countries, to enable more effective exchange of best practice across Europe.