The Commissioner for Human Rights has released a report titled "Support for students with disabilities by co-organizing teachers, teacher aides, and personal assistants for students with special educational needs." The main objective of the report is to assess the types of support these students need to effectively exercise their right to education, and to identify the challenges and barriers they face. Based on these findings, the report provides recommendations for developing solutions to initiate assistant support for students with special educational needs in preschools and schools, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The report has been submitted to the Minister of Education in the hope that its data, conclusions and recommendations will help to improve the situation of students with special educational needs. The Commissioner closely monitors the implementation of the UN Convention, which guarantees the right to education for people with disabilities and requires public authorities to establish an inclusive education system that integrates students at all levels.

One of the key recommendations of the report is the need for a systemic regulation of the role of personal assistants for students with special needs. This position should be structured similarly to that of co-organizing teachers and teacher aides. The assistant's responsibilities should be clearly defined, and their role should align with other educational personnel. Additionally, assistants should be involved in both caregiving and educational functions, including access to student records and participation in multidisciplinary evaluations.

Another pressing issue highlighted is the long waiting times for special education diagnoses, mainly due to the overburdened public psychological and educational counseling centers. This delay threatens to undermine the quality of the assessments provided. The report calls for measures to reduce waiting times and suggests integrating observation of children in their school environment into the diagnostic process.

Teachers pointed out that the optimal classroom size for working with students with special educational needs is between 12 and 15 students. However, current regulations allow for classes of up to 29 students, which can negatively affect the quality of education. The report recommends limiting the number of students in a class and reducing the percentage of students with special educational needs in each classroom to better meet their educational needs.

The report also emphasizes the importance of continuing and strengthening anti-discrimination measures in schools to protect students with special educational needs. Although incidents of discrimination were found to be the exception rather than the rule, examples of harassment and systematic exclusion were noted. To address this, the report calls for raising awareness among the entire school community, including parents, and ensuring that students with special needs are fully integrated into school life. It also recommends the establishment of clear procedures for dealing with discrimination and the promotion of cooperation between schools and parents of students with special educational needs to ensure that every student receives equal educational opportunities.

The Commissioner highlights the challenges in providing inclusive education for students with special needs, particularly in physical education, where these students are often excluded. There is a need for more flexible curricula and tailored programs, especially for students with disabilities like autism or hearing impairments. The current curriculum lacks appropriate adaptations, and there is a call for better assessment models and more individualized support during exams. Adjusting the curriculum to meet the unique needs of these students, including specialized physical education programs, is essential.

Additionally, the Commissioner emphasizes the importance of including special education topics in teacher training programs. As the number of students with special needs has increased, teachers must have access to the necessary resources and training. The report also points to significant barriers in school infrastructure, such as a lack of accessible facilities, elevators, and specialized equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to progressively eliminate architectural barriers, guided by the principles of universal design and rational adjustment, consisting in the introduction of any necessary adaptations and modifications that do not cause disproportionate difficulties.

The Commissioner calls on the Minister of Education to review the findings and consider implementing the recommendations to improve inclusive education. The report also was sent to the Ombudsman for Children, the Government Plenipotentiary for Persons with Disabilities, and the chairmen of the relevant committees of the Sejm and Senate.

SPEECH - SPEAKER Emily O'Reilly - CITY Brussels - COUNTRY Belgium - DATE Wednesday | 25 September 2024

Vice President Barley, Vice President Sefcovic, members of the European parliament, honoured guests, colleagues and friends.

Thank you for your presence here this evening and thank you also to Vice President Jourova and to Alberto Alemanno for your generous words.

It has been an enormous privilege to have served in this Office for the last 11 years, to have been allowed to observe so closely the workings of this Union, to have, I hope,  helped to influence its work in a positive way.

The European Ombudsman is a small office with a big mandate : to make sure those who make and enforce the rules that the rest of us have to live by, do so in a way that is just, that is accountable and that always puts the public interest first.

But it’s also much more than that.

Many of you know the story – possibly apocryphal - about the visit of former US President John F Kennedy to the headquarters of NASA, the American space agency, in 1962.  On his tour, the President spotted a man sweeping the floor, approached him, and asked him what he did in the agency. The cleaner replied: “I’m helping to put a man on the moon, Mr President.”

In a similar way, my office sweeps the floor of the administration through the handling of complaints, but also has a higher purpose,  its very own moon shot, to protect democracy and the rule of law, without which the Union will never be great , either now or into the future.

New leaders have a choice to make when first elected or appointed.  They can either keep the organization as it is, risk nothing, or be ambitious for its potential. When campaigning in 2013, I recall two descriptions of the European Ombudsman. One was, ‘It’s where people go who can’t afford a lawyer.’ The other was ‘ It’s a decoration on the face of the EU administration.”

Both were unfair, and I reminded the MEP who described the Office as a trivial decoration that once upon a time the European Parliament itself was a decoration on the face of the EU, with limited powers, members who served simultaneously in their member state parliaments and only directly elected  by the people since 1979.

Treaty changes and ambition were key to the greater power and reach of the parliament but no Treaty change was necessary for my colleagues and I more completely, efficiently, and strategically to execute the Treaty intended role of the Ombudsman.

We cut the time it takes to complete a case in half, introduced modern, collaborative ways of working, brought women centre stage in management, encouraged through biennial awards the incredible work of EU staff and developed a happy, motivating, and respectful working environment for our staff.

We increased the use of our existing power of own initiative investigation – later strengthened under the new statute - raising awareness of, and bringing some solutions to, the problems of opaque EU trade deals, the geographical, gender and interest balance of expert groups that advise the Commission, the accessibility of even basic information on the vital Trilogue negotiation process, and the management of the revolving door between the public administration and the private sector.

But we never lost sight of individual, very human, problems. Earlier this year, and in possibly my favourite case, we managed to get a parliament pass for the baby of a breastfeeding contract interpreter.

The force and direction of our work did not make me friends everywhere.  I was viewed positively by many, doing my work in accordance with the Treaties and the demands of European participatory democracy. Others accused me of over reach, of being a bit too active, too strategic, of having moved outside of my lane.

Some speak of a need now to take the Office ‘back to basics’.  I don’t precisely know what is intended by that but I interpret it as meaning an Ombudsman who would obediently sweep the floor and never dare to dream of a moon landing.

My professional background as a journalist was also a matter of curiosity, at times of criticism by some whose countries habitually appoint lawyers and judges to the role. Yet for me, my journalism , the issues and attitudes that  drove me personally and professionally were precisely what  enabled me seamlessly to inhabit the role of Ombudsman in Ireland and in the EU. The media, as an accountability mechanism, is, in my view, often on a par with the courts, and, on occasion, far more effective.

As a young journalist, stationed in Belfast for a period during the Northern Ireland conflict, I observed  paramilitary violence, state discrimination, cynical and lethal politics. But I also observed the triumph of the best of politics and of politicians when, on Good Friday, April 10 1998, I witnessed the signing of an agreement between the Irish and British governments bringing  peace, albeit imperfect, to Northern Ireland.

In apartheid South Africa I witnessed the worst of what a racist state can do to people it considers to be lesser.  I reported from Khartoum on the 1988 flooding in Sudan, the devastation wreaked on its capital and on its people displaced there by famine a harbinger of what may happen ever more frequently on our planet if the climate crisis is not averted.

Back in Ireland after a Harvard University fellowship, which included reporting on that year’s U.S. election – a gentle affair compared to now -  I reported again on the events and rhythms of national life, from the rise and fall of the conservative right to our slow and then rapid emergence from the shadow of the United Kingdom and of the Catholic Church into an increasingly secular, EU facing, tolerant democracy.

I recorded the everyday stuff of national politics with all of its compromises, its ethical challenges, but occasionally its great leaps of inspiration and of compassion. I addressed the ethics of my own profession in a book I wrote on the murder of an Irish journalist.

And all of that – alongside my mothering of five children – I brought to my role as Irish Ombudsman where I found myself still at the interface of Government and the governed.

Midway through my mandate, I observed the suffering imposed on the governed by the financial crisis of 2008.  The crisis management of the Troika of the European Commission, the IMF and the ECB – taught me what happens when the relationship between people and administrations at national and European level becomes distorted, when the administration loses sight of who and what it’s trying to protect.

Certain measures imposed were cruel, destroying livelihoods, destroying literal lives when other ways could have been found to deal more humanely with the crisis. I vividly recall the sight of people in wheelchairs, chaining themselves to the gates of the parliament building in Dublin, pleading to have their care  assistants restored to them to allow them to live as others do.

But lessons were learnt and when COVID hit, the EU institutions and the member states, commendably, focused on the welfare of their citizens and not just on the balance sheet.

In 2013, I brought  all of that experience to my role here , to work to enable the administration to understand how its rules and regulations impact on citizens when things go wrong, when injustices occur even when the law is not necessarily broken.

Ireland’s entry into the EU in 1973 took place just two years before I left school. As I have remarked before it was subsequently the ‘faceless bureaucrats’ of the EU that enabled me and my generation of Irishwomen to have equal and public lives by forcing our government to implement equality measures  that gradually freed us from the kitchen sink.

 I owe the EU a great debt and if I have been critical it is the criticism of someone with pride in what it has achieved,  belief in its potential, and consequent disappointment when it fails at times, to live up to it.

So as I prepare to leave, others are preparing to become candidates for this post. Some of you are here this evening and are most welcome. Last week in Strasbourg many were busy trying to collect the 39 signatures needed to become candidates and as I watched you, my heart was filled with …great joy at the fact that I no longer have to do that.

It will be an interesting election with a much more fragmented parliament than before and many excellent candidates. I am aware that some in parliament may want an Ombudsman with a rather different profile and approach to my own and that is their prerogative. The challenge for the candidates is to construct a narrative that doesn’t alienate a potential majority.

I recall during my first election in 2013, receiving an invitation immediately to meet with the political group then led by the UK politician Nigel Farage who would later lead the charge for Brexit. My campaign team dragged me through the Strasbourg corridors to the meeting room, urgently whispering advice in my ear.

The advice was to make them like me and therefore vote for me, but not to make them like me so much that they would Tweet their approval of me and annoy everyone else.  In the end I treated it as an out of body experience and went with the flow and to this day I have no idea whether they liked me or not, but they certainly didn’t Tweet about me.

So to conclude, I thank the European Parliament, the Commission and other institutions, the wider administration, civil society, citizens, and above all my wonderful colleagues for their support and collaboration throughout this time.

If there is one overriding memory however, it will be of our investigation into the EU’s response to the 2023 capsizing of the Adriana, the overcrowded fishing vessel, carrying migrants en route to Italy from Libya, over 600 of whom drowned in our sublime and beautiful Mediterranean Sea - in plain sight - and with multiple bodies never recovered.

The issues are complex, politically and ethically fraught and I understand all of that, but this was a case in which my professional and personal selves, to a degree, collided.  The drownings took place some months before one of our daughters gave birth to her first child, our first grandchild, and the two events, one tragic, one joyful, will always be linked in my brain and in my heart.

When I imagine the mothers and the children on that boat, the absolute horror and terror of that mass drowning, I see my own children and their own children, and all of our children and grandchildren in that sea, underneath those waves.

We still await the full response from the EU institutions to our findings and I wish you courage and strength as you try to balance the harsh demands of politics with the human demands of those who believe in our own depiction of this Union as a place of safety and of hope.

In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights. May we never feel compelled, or be compelled, to give that prize back. May we always individually and collectively strive to be the Union that those who awarded us that prize, believed us to be.

Der Petitionsausschuss des Landtages M-V wird am Mittwoch, dem 18.09.2024, gleich zwei Orte im Land anfahren. Die Abgeordneten wollen sich vor Ort selbst ein Bild machen und alle Beteiligten an einen Tisch bringen, um die mit den Petitionen vorgetragenen Probleme und Lösungsmöglichkeiten zu besprechen.

Um 9.30 Uhr kommen die Abgeordneten in Bad Doberan, in der Straße Walkenhagen mit der Petentin, dem Bürgermeister der Stadt, der Landesforstanstalt und dem Landwirtschaftsministerium zusammen. Hier besteht das Problem darin, dass die Petentin ein Wohnhaus für drei Generationen errichten möchte, das Grundstück zwischenzeitlich aber so bewachsen ist, dass das Forstamt die Fläche als Wald bewertet und deshalb einer Bebauung nicht zustimmt. Das Grundstück liegt zwischen zwei Häusern in einem bebauten Stadtgebiet, für das es eine Innenbereichssatzung gibt. Die Wohnbebauung ist bauplanungsrechtlich damit zulässig. Auch die Stadt ist daran interessiert, dass Lücken wie diese bebaut werden, um eine Ausweitung der Stadt nach außen zu vermeiden.

Am Nachmittag fährt der Petitionsausschuss weiter nach Dobbin-Linstow, Teichwirtschaft 7, wo er sich um 13.30 Uhr mit der Petentin und weiteren Einwohnern sowie Vertretern des Landkreises, des Staatlichen Amtes für Landwirtschaft und Umwelt Mittleres Mecklenburg (StALU MM) und des Landwirtschaftsministeriums trifft. Die Petentin kritisiert, dass an dem Fluss Nebel eine sogenannte Fischtreppe zu Lasten des Mühlenteiches in Dobbin errichtet werden soll. Das Bauvorhaben sieht vor, den Teich trockenzulegen. Der Mühlenteich ist jedoch ein ausgewiesenes Bodendenkmal und bildet zusammen mit der anliegenden Wassermühle ein schützenswertes Denkmalensemble. Zudem ist er ein wertvolles Biotop. Sie befürchtet mit der Baumaßnahme in dieser Größenordnung negative Auswirkungen auf die Ökosysteme in diesem Gebiet. Die natur- und denkmalschutzrechtlichen Aspekte seien bei der Planung der Fischtreppe zu wenig beachtet worden, so die Petentin. Dem widerspricht das Landwirtschaftsministerium. Es gehe vor allem darum, die ökologische Durchwanderbarkeit der Nebel herzustellen. Das vorhandene Wehr stelle aber ein Wanderhindernis für die Fische dar und solle daher durch eine Fischaufstiegsanlage ersetzt werden. Der künstlich angestaute Mühlenteich habe ebenfalls nachteilige Auswirkungen auf die Durchwanderbarkeit. Deshalb sei entschieden worden, den Teich trockenzulegen. Natur- und Denkmalschutz seien dabei ausreichend berücksichtigt worden.

Il Coordinamento della Conferenza nazionale dei Difensori civici delle Regioni e delle Province autonome di Trento e Bolzano nasce nel 1994, quale organismo associativo per la diffusione e la valorizzazione del ruolo istituzionale della Difesa Civica.

La sua finalità è di garantire a tutti i cittadini, indipendentemente dalla loro residenza, la tutela nei confronti della pubblica amministrazione a ogni livello; di promuovere la piena affermazione dei diritti umani e di cittadinanza, sanciti dall’ordinamento italiano e dalle risoluzioni europee e internazionali; di sviluppare i collegamenti con il Mediatore Europeo.

Il Coordinamento della Conferenza nazionale ha Sede Istituzionale  a Roma presso la Conferenza dei Presidenti dell’Assemblea Consigli regionali e delle Province autonome e Sede Operativa presso gli uffici del  Difensore civico che di volta in volta ricopre l’incarico di Presidente del Coordinamento  nazionale.

 L’attuale Ufficio di Presidenza è così composto:

Il Coordinamento Nazionale dei Difensori Civici delle Regioni e delle Province autonome, quale organismo associativo operante per la concertazione e la valorizzazione del ruolo istituzionale della Difesa civica, persegue le seguenti finalità:

• garantire a tutti cittadini, indipendentemente dalla loro residenza, la tutela nei confronti della pubblica amministrazione ad ogni livello (statale, regionale, locale), per il rispetto dei principi di imparzialità, efficienza, trasparenza, equità;
• operare per la concreta attuazione dei Trattati e delle disposizioni europee e internazionali sui diritti fondamentali della persona umana;
• promuovere la piena affermazione della “Carta Europea dei diritti fondamentali” e delle risoluzioni (Unione Europea, Consiglio d’Europa, Nazioni Unite, ecc.) in materia di indipendenza e autonomia della tutela non giurisdizionale dei diritti umani, civili, politici, economici, sociali e culturali;
• sviluppare le relazioni con il Mediatore Europeo e gli Ombudsman dell’Unione, attraverso una rete di collegamenti aperti alle realtà dell’Europa centro orientale;
• favorire in ogni regione iniziative per la diffusione della difesa civica e la crescita degli standard di tutela dei diritti soggettivi e degli interessi diffusi;
• sviluppare gli opportuni raccordi con il Parlamento e con il Governo, anche attraverso la Conferenza Stato-Regioni-Autonomie e la Conferenza dei Presidenti dell’Assemblea, dei Consigli regionali e delle Province autonome;
• attivare iniziative di studio e di ricerca, con particolare riferimento alla pubblica amministrazione, alla giustizia amministrativa e al ruolo della difesa civica istituzionale delle Regioni e degli Enti locali. Il Coordinamento interviene anche su mandato del Mediatore Europeo presso tutte le pubbliche amministrazioni prive di un Difensore Civico di riferimento e precisamente presso:
• gli uffici centrali dello Stato
• gli uffici regionali e gli uffici degli enti locali nelle Regioni prive di un Difensore civico regionale Presidente rappresenta la Difesa civica Nazionale Italiana con il Mediatore Europeo e si raccorda con gli altri Difensori civici europei anche attraverso l’agente di collegamento. 

Berlin: (hib/HAU) Der Petitionsausschuss zeigt Verständnis für das in einer Petition dargestellte Anliegen, zur Verhinderung von Wasserknappheit der Versorgung der Bürger vor dem Bedarf von Getränkekonzernen Vorrang einzuräumen und die „Wasserverschwendung durch Golfplätze und Autowaschanlagen“ zu stoppen. In der Sitzung am Mittwoch verabschiedete der Ausschuss mit den Stimmen der Koalitionsfraktionen sowie der Gruppe Die Linke die Beschlussempfehlung an den Bundestag, die entsprechende öffentliche Petition (ID 152735) „als Material“ dem Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz zu überweisen.

Der Petent begründet seine Forderung unter anderem damit, dass Getränkekonzerne „enorme Mengen Hektoliter unseres kostbaren Allgemeinguts Grundwasser abpumpen“, obwohl schon seit Jahren ein sinkender Grundwasserspiegel beobachtet werde. Viele der Süßgetränke seien jedoch nur Genussmittel „und keine Lebensmittel“.

Ebenso sollte aus Sicht des Petenten die „fragwürdige Wasserverschwendung auf Golfplätzen und in Autowaschanlagen“ verboten werden. Der Klimawandel zeige, dass die Fokussierung auf lebenswichtige Dinge wie Trinkwasser und die Beregnung von Äckern für Lebensmittel wichtiger sein müsse „als die Profitgier der Getränkekonzerne und Golfplatzbesitzer“.

In der Begründung zu seiner Beschlussempfehlung verweist der Ausschuss darauf, dass aus dem Grundrecht auf Leben und Gesundheit (Artikel 2 Grundgesetz) in Verbindung mit dem Sozialstaatsprinzip (Artikel 20 Grundgesetz) ein Anspruch der Bürger auf sichere, qualitativ angemessene Versorgung mit Trinkwasser als Bestandteil des zu sichernden Existenzminimums folge. „Die öffentliche Wasserversorgung ist gemäß Paragraf 50 des Wasserhaushaltsgesetzes (WHG) ausdrücklich Aufgabe der Daseinsvorsorge“, heißt es in der Vorlage.

Wasser, so heißt es weiter, unterliege in Deutschland einer öffentlich-rechtlichen Nutzungsordnung. Die Gewässerbenutzungen würden strikt reglementiert. Die Verwaltung habe die Aufgabe, die Nutzungsinteressen am Wasser gemäß den Bewirtschaftungszielen des WHG zu steuern. Das deutsche Wasserrecht bietet aus Sicht des Petitionsausschusses die geeigneten Instrumente, „um konkurrierende Nutzungs- und Schutzinteressen im Sinne der Allgemeinheit zu regeln“.

Mit Blick auf die angesprochenen Waschstraßen machen die Abgeordneten darauf aufmerksam, dass wasserrechtliche Anforderungen an den Betrieb von Industrieanlagen in der Abwasserverordnung getroffen werden. Darin sei geregelt, dass der Einsatz wassersparender Verfahren bei Wasch- und Reinigungsvorgängen zu beachten sei.

Die bestehenden Regelungen des WHG würden zudem den zuständigen Aufsichtsbehörden vor Ort zudem bereits jetzt die Möglichkeit geben, Maßnahmen anzuordnen, die im Einzelfall notwendig sind, um Beeinträchtigungen des Wasserhaushalts zu vermeiden oder zu beseitigen. „Das bedeutet auch, dass beispielsweise in Zeiten langanhaltender Trockenheit und damit verbundener Wasserknappheit heute schon bestimmte Wassernutzungen, beispielsweise für die Bewässerung von Gärten oder Grünanlagen, durch die zuständige Wasserbehörde eingeschränkt werden können“, schreiben die Abgeordneten.

Zusammenfassend kommt der Ausschuss zu der Feststellung, dass die Priorisierung der Trinkwasserversorgung der Bevölkerung in Deutschland schon heute rechtlich verankert sei. Der Petitionsausschuss habe gleichwohl durchaus Verständnis für das in der Eingabe zum Ausdruck kommende Anliegen, heißt es in der Beschlussempfehlung.