Parents of Children with Difficulties and Disabilities: We No Longer Want to Waste Time with the Government of Sarajevo Canton

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Representatives of parents of children with developmental difficulties and persons with disabilities, living in the area of Sarajevo Canton, began to disperse after today's gathering in front of the Government of Sarajevo Canton, as they assessed that they were unnecessarily wasting time in front of the Government.

Aida Hrnjić, mother of a boy on the autism spectrum, told those gathered that today she sent a letter to international institutions in which, as she pointed out, all violations of her human rights are listed, for which she has requested asylum. 

She announced the filing of a lawsuit against all institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina that she believes have violated the rights of her family. 

The Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, Edin Forto, told the media that he understands the demands of this population and that he is one of the signatories of the letter of support, but that time is needed to resolve their problems. He added that the Government of Sarajevo Canton has resolved two out of 20 demands. 

The parents addressed an appeal to High Representative Valentin Inzko, Head of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina Lars Gunnar Wigemark, World Bank Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina Emanuel Salinas, UN Resident Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina Sezin Sinanoglu, and UNICEF Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Rownak Khan.

The letter from parents of children with developmental difficulties and persons with disabilities states: 

"Your Excellencies,

We, parents of children with developmental difficulties and persons with disabilities from Sarajevo Canton, are addressing you in the hope that you can and will help us in insisting with our Government, for the realization of basic human rights such as the right to life, the right to treatment, education, the right to work, the right to social protection, the right to inclusion, and all other rights guaranteed by the UN Convention on Human Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU Charter, the Geneva Declaration, the Constitution and laws of the country in which we live and which has committed to respecting human rights.

Namely, after decades of systematic neglect and disenfranchisement of our children and persons with disabilities, we belong to the group that our authorities call 'marginalized', and all our efforts, pleas and cries for solving elementary life issues are constantly and repeatedly set aside, promising but not doing, subjecting us, our children and loved ones to constant humiliation, without a serious approach to solving all the mentioned issues.

Despite all the Conventions and efforts of world organizations and leaders, the tendency of our Government is to constantly place children in specialized institutions where they are isolated from society because they have not provided the necessary and adequate resources for developing inclusion, and so much time has already passed. Despite the fact that we are located in the heart of Europe, the capital city of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of the children with developmental difficulties in early intervention and preschool age are placed in a special institution where 120 of them share one toilet and do not have a single meal! They have been deprived of basic conditions for stay, let alone education and learning. This is just one small, very blatant example, and there are countless such or even worse ones, unfortunately. In one such institution in Sarajevo, also, a kindergarten for children with difficulties is located on the third floor of the building, without an elevator or access ramp, so parents carry their children as best they can. There are no day centers or any humane approach that could ease the life of both children/persons and families.

Those who are lucky enough to attend regular schools have absolutely no support there, except for the goodwill of the teacher. Insufficient number of teaching assistants, lack of personal assistants, lack of physical access, lack of an adapted toilet, and countless other elementary things that no government in Sarajevo Canton has ever wanted to provide, under the pretext of lack of budget funds. Not to mention adapted textbooks or technologies used worldwide in educational systems, with the aim of improving quality and ensuring accessibility of school content for every child, regardless of the type, type or degree of difficulty. This is absolutely unknown to our Government, it is not discussed, nor is it even planned.

All of the above is just a drop in the ocean of problems in which our children and our loved ones find themselves.

Due to politicization, bad policies, political divisions, persons with disabilities throughout the country do not have the same rights. Despite the fact that our country has signed the EU Charter on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, their rights here are significantly uneven, and the application of their rights is divided into war military invalids and persons with disabilities. Selectively, unevenly and through the politicization of every segment of their lives. It is very common for a war military invalid, for example, to receive an adapted car from the Government, while an 'ordinary' person with a disability cannot even have a wheelchair. To make things even more bizarre in the divisions and 'valuation of disability', war military invalids receive silicone catheters for urination, for example, whose price on our market is about 7 KM, while all 'others' receive ordinary plastic ones with an average price of 0.70 KM. Including children!

We are sure that these are shocking facts for each of you who come from democratic societies, there are countless examples of discrimination, but we will not list them anymore, we will refer to the democracy of Sarajevo Canton where we, parents of children with difficulties and persons with disabilities, requested an urgent thematic session regarding this population, and with a citizens' petition by which we collected almost 6,000 signatures of support, submitted to the Assembly, nothing happened. We do not understand that it is possible to call such a thing democracy because both the Government and the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton should be our service, to us, their citizens, and not an ignorant instrument of politicization.

We are witnesses of how much effort the international community has invested in this country, for the benefit of its citizens. We are witnesses of how much money your compatriots, citizens of Europe and the world, have set aside for our country and how much they still do. How many projects just this year will you give your money to?

We ask you not to do so further and to condition our Government to urgently change such bad policies towards children with developmental difficulties and persons with disabilities because we cannot live here. Our life is literally made impossible, and our loved ones are endangered. Our children either die or funds for their treatment are collected through charity actions, SMS messages, humanitarian bazaars, etc. Due to constant pressure, financial, emotional, social and every other, people lose their roofs over their heads, marriages fall apart, the number of desperate and rejected families living below the margin, disenfranchised and without any perspective, grows. A Government that is not able to provide for the most vulnerable category of its population, we are sure, does not deserve the money of your citizens, taxpayers of your countries, for 'their' projects.

We ask you to insist together with us on the implementation of all conventions and laws or to allow us to immigrate and seek asylum in your countries, due to the threat to life, health and endangerment of basic human rights. Our children and loved ones are deprived of everything, and we have been forced for years to kneel and beg for crumbs. On our knees and without perspective, with constant worry 'what will happen tomorrow', often seeking our rights on the street.

Respectfully,

Parents of children with developmental difficulties and persons with disabilities from Sarajevo Canton"