CAMPAIGNS
- by VIA and by other groups around the world
We hope this page, and the noticeboard, will be used by other like-minded groups around the world. Please let us know about your organisation, and your campaign.
Parenthood and people
with learning difficulties
The suggestion that people with learning difficulties are people with ordinary sexual needs and rights is still considered alarming in many quarters. There is a greater prejudice still against the idea that they should be allowed the opportunity of parenthood. In social care services, the response to people with learning difficulties is often determinedly negative: Removing assistance, and waiting for failure, instead of building supports. These attitudes and practices are now the focus of an increasing vigorous campaign by VIA.
Action for inclusion in education.
North West Action for Inclusion, based in Lancashire, England, is fighting against the system of educational apartheid which means that children with special needs are likely to be excluded from mainstream schools. This group has taken to direct, non-violent protest, and as a result two of their members have been sent to prison . For more info. contact Karen Barton, +44 (0)1204 572627.
Convicting the innocent.
Richard Lapointe - a man born with a condition which means he is deaf, partially sighted, and has learning difficulties, has spent the last seven years in prison for murder. It was the work of 'a violent, raging maniac' but Lapointe is a meek and timid man. And there is no link between him and the crime except three sparse confessions recorded when he was interrogated over a five hour period. An increasing number of legal experts and human rights campaigners, including the playwright Arthur Miller, believe that Lapointe is innocent. They've formed the Friends of Richard Lapointe, to campaign for justice for him and others like him. Contact the group at 1030 New Britain Avenue, West Hartford, Connecticut CT 06110 phone (203) 953-8335.
Unjustified Detention in Hospital
A Self Advocacy Group is Challenging the Traditional System for people with learning difficulties in former Yugoslav Republic. Earlier this year Andrew Holman from VIA supported the First National Self-Advocacy conference in Slovenija. Following the event, the "group for independent living" from Koper have launched a strong Campaign to help Tatyana, another conference delegate, who is still detained in hospital against her wishes. The group have maintained strong links with her and have been highlighting her plight on the radio and in the local press. Tatyana, in her thirties, has her own flat, but had to move into the hospital for old people, when she did not do as she was told by her "foster parents". Her foster parents stay living in her flat whilst she is given high levels of drugs. Contact through Andrew Holman at 100260.2041@compuserve.com
Proposed Legislation on Consent
and People with learning difficulties
Last year European disability organizations successfully campaigned to change the EU legislation on Bioethics with regard to experimentation on 'those who could not consent'. The worrying section proposed research experiments on disabled people of little or no value to the person concerned. We are now interested in the UK version, the legislation proposals on 'mental incapacity' recently published from the Law Commission and, through our own campaign, want to highlight worrying similarities.
Page last updated 20/11/95