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International Day of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated worldwide on 3 December. “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all” was a featured topic of this year’s International Day, stressing the importance of inclusion of persons with disabilities in the post-2015 development framework.

The European Parliament approved the Regulations on the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) which include explicit support for the transition from institutional to community-based care.

On 27th of November, the Swiss Council of States endorsed the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The approval means an important step towards better recognition of the rights of people with disabilities in Switzerland.

In many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, children with disabilities and Roma children are still placed in the segregated classrooms and schools receiving inferior education. Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC) and European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) called for inclusive education for all children on the occasion of International Students’ Day on 18 November.

NHS England is developing a framework for accessible information called an Information Standard. This guidance will set out the requirements for accessible information for health care and social care institutions, as well as for public administration. Thus it is expected to improve the communication between people with disabilities and information providers and help to involve people with disabilities in decision-making.

A public hearing on the new Public Procurement Directive was hosted by MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen and MEP Nils Torvalds at the European Parliament on 13 November. The renewed legislation recognises the particularity of social services and guarantees wider autonomy to Member States to decide on the organisation and financing on social services.

More than 30 representatives of human rights and development NGOs, families of people with intellectual disabilities, self-advocates and human rights lawyers gathered together at the roundtable discussion on access to justices for persons with disabilities who were victims of a crime. This event was held on 11 September in Nairobi in Kenya and was hosted by Inclusion Africa and Inclusion International together with Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA).

The Break the Barrier – Strengthening the Townships Project is the project led by Down Syndrome South Africa (DSSA) which aims to reduce stigmatization and isolation of people with intellectual disabilities and their families living in townships by mobilising the parents and strengthening their ability to improve their general living conditions in the townships in South Africa.

In recent months, the Ministry of Interior of Iceland has been working on a translation of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The translation is prepared on the basis of the Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities for the year 2014 which was approved by Parliament as a part of preparations for the ratification of the UN Convention.

On 11 November, representatives of the European Disability Forum (EDF) met with Viviane Reding, the Vice President of the European Commission to discuss the state of play in the preparation of the European Accessibility Act.