Disabled people are entitled to the same human rights as all other citizens. The first article of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights states: All human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights. In order to achieve this goal, all communities should celebrate the diversity within their communities and seek to ensure that disabled people can enjoy the full range of human rights: civil, political, social, economical and cultural as acknowledged by the different international Conventions, the EU Treaty and in the different national constitutions.

As with many other regions in the world, the European Union has moved a long way during these last decades from the philosophy of paternalism towards disabled people to one of attempting to empower them to exercise control over their own lives. The old approaches based largely on pity and perceived helplessness of disabled people are now considered unacceptable. Action is shifting from an emphasis on rehabilitating the individual so they may ‘fit in’ to society towards a global philosophy of modifying society to include and accommodate the needs of all persons, including people with disabilities. Disabled people are demanding equal opportunities and access to all societal resources, i.e. inclusive education, new technologies, health and social services, sports and leisure activities, consumer goods and services.

The way our societies are organised often means disabled people are not able to fully enjoy their human rights and that they are socially excluded. The statistical data that is available shows that disabled people have unacceptable low levels of education and employment. This also results in greater numbers of disabled people living in situations of real poverty compared with non-disabled citizens.

The discrimination disabled people face is sometimes based on prejudice against them, but more often it is caused by the fact that disabled people are largely forgotten and ignored and this results in the creation and reinforcement of environmental and attitudinal barriers which prevent disabled people from taking part in society.

As with all spheres of society, disabled people form a very diverse group of people and only policies that respect this diversity will work. In particular, people with complex dependency needs and their families require particular action by societies, as they are often the most forgotten among disabled people. Also, women with disabilities and disabled people from ethnic minorities are often faced with double and even multiple discrimination, resulting from the interaction of the discrimination caused by their disability and the discrimination resulting from their gender or ethnic origin. For deaf people the recognition of sign language is a fundamental issue. 

The recently adopted EU Charter of Fundamental Rights acknowledges that to achieve equality for disabled people the right not to be discriminated against has to be complemented by the right to benefit from measures designed to ensure their independence, integration and participation in the life of the community. This synthesis approach has been the guiding principle of the Madrid congress that brought together more than 600 participants in March 2002.

Comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation must be enacted without delay to remove existing barriers and avoid the establishment of new barriers that disabled people may encounter such as in education, employment and access to goods and services and which prevent disabled people from achieving their full potential for social participation and independence. The non-discrimination clause, Article 13 of the EC Treaty allows this to happen at Community level, thus contributing to a real barrier-free Europe for people with disabilities.

Anti-discrimination legislation has proven to be successful in bringing about changes in attitude towards people with disabilities. However, the law is not enough. Without a strong commitment from all society, including the active participation of disabled people and their organisations in securing their own rights, legislation remains an empty shell. Public education is therefore necessary to back up legislative measures and to increase understanding of the needs and rights of disabled people in society and to fight the prejudice and stigmatisation that still presently exists.

Achieving the goal of equal access and participation also requires that resources should be channelled in such a way as to enhance the disabled person's capacity for participation and their right to independent living. Many disabled people require support services in their daily lives. These services must be quality services based on the needs of disabled people and must be integrated in society and not be a source of segregation. Such support is in accordance with the European social model of solidarity – a model that acknowledges our collective responsibility towards one another and especially towards those who require assistance.

The family of disabled people, in particular of disabled children and people with complex dependency needs unable to represent themselves, plays a vital role in their education and social inclusion. In view of this, adequate measures for families need to be established by public authorities, in order to allow families to organise their support for the disabled person in the most inclusive way.

The European Year has to be seen as the opportunity to consider the situation of disabled women from a new perspective. The social exclusion faced by disabled women can not only by explained by her disability but also the gender element needs to be considered. The multiple discrimination faced by disabled women has to be challenged through a combination of mainstreaming measures and positive action measures designed in consultation with disabled women.

Disabled people should have access to the mainstream health, education, vocational and social services and all the opportunities, which are available to non-disabled persons. The implementation of an inclusive approach to disability and disabled people requires changes in current practice at several levels.  First of all, it is necessary to ensure that services available to disabled people are co-ordinated within and across the different sectors. The accessibility needs of the different groups of disabled people need to be considered in the planning process of any activity and not as an afterthought when the planning has already been completed. The needs of disabled people and their families are varied and it is important to devise a comprehensive response, which takes into account both the whole person and the various aspects of his or her life.

Special efforts need to be made to promote the access of disabled people to employment, preferably in the mainstream labour market. This is one of the important ways to fight against the social exclusion of disabled people and to promote their independent living and dignity. This requires, not only the active mobilisation of the social partners, but also of the public authorities, which need to continue to strengthen the measures already in place.

The Year must be an opportunity to grant disabled people, their families, their advocates and their associations a new and expanded political and social scope, at all levels of society, in order to engage governments in dialogue, decision-making and progress around the goals for equality and inclusion.

All actions should be undertaken in dialogue and co-operation with the relevant representative disability organisations. Such participation should not only be limited to receiving information or endorsing decisions. Rather, at all levels of decision-making, governments must put in place or strengthen regular mechanisms for consultation and dialogue enabling disabled people through their disability organisations to contribute to the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all the actions.

A strong alliance between Governments and disability organisations is the basic requisite to progress most effectively the equal opportunities and social participation of disabled people.

In order to facilitate this process, the capacity of disability organisations should be enhanced through greater resource allocation to allow them to improve their management and campaigning capacities. This also implies the responsibility on part of the disability organisations to continuously improve their levels of governance and representativeness.

The European Year of People with Disabilities 2003 should mean an advancement of the disability agenda and this requires the active support of all relevant stakeholders in a wide partnership approach. Therefore concrete suggestions for action are proposed for all relevant stakeholders. These actions are to be established in the European Year and continued beyond the European Year; progress should be evaluated over time.

Public authorities should lead by example and therefore are the first but not only actor in this process. They should:-- review the current scope of Community and national legal frameworks aiming at combating discriminatory practices in the fields of education, employment and access to good and services;

The European Year must really occur firstly at the local level, where issues are real to citizens and where associations of and for people with disabilities are doing most of their work.  Every effort must be made to focus the promotion, resources, and activities at the local level.

Local actors should be invited to integrate the needs of people with disabilities in urban and community policy, including education, employment, housing, transport, health and social services, bearing in mind the diversity of disabled people, including, among others, older people, women and immigrants. 

Local governments should draft local plans of action on disability in co-operation with representatives of disabled people and set up their own local committees to spearhead the activities of the Year.

Disability organisations, as representatives of disabled people, have a major responsibility to ensure the success of the European Year. They have to consider themselves as the ambassadors of the European Year and proactively approach all relevant stakeholders proposing concrete measures and seeking to establish long lasting partnerships when these not yet exist.

Employers should increase their efforts to include, retain and promote disabled people in their workforce and to design their products and services in a way that these are accessible to disabled people. Employers should review their internal policies to ensure that none of these prevents disabled people from enjoying equal opportunities. Employer organisations can contribute to these efforts by collecting the many examples of good practice that already exist.

Trade unions should increase their involvement to improve the access to and maintenance in employment of disabled people and ensure that disabled people benefit from equal access to the training and promotion measures, when negotiating the agreements in the companies and professional sectors. Also increased attention should be paid to promote the participation and representation of disabled workers, both within their own decision making structures and those existing in the companies or professional sectors.

The Media should create and strengthen partnerships with associations of people with disabilities, in order to improve the portrayal of disabled people in mass media. More information on disabled people should be included in the media in  recognition of the existence of human diversity. When referring to disability issues, the media should avoid any patronising or humiliating approaches but focus instead on the barriers disabled people face and the positive contribution to society disabled people can make once these barriers have been overcome.

Disabled people seek to be present in all spheres of life and that requires that all organisations review their practices to ensure that they are designed in a way that disabled people can contribute to them and benefit from them. Examples of such organisations include: consumer organisations, youth organisations, religious organisations, cultural organisations, other social organisations that represent specific groups of citizens.  It is also important to involve places such as museums, theatres, cinemas, parks, stadiums, congress centres,  shopping malls and  post offices.

We, the participants at the Madrid congress support this Declaration and commit ourselves to disseminate it widely, so it may reach the grass roots, and we will encourage all relevant stakeholders to endorse this Declaration before, during or after the European Year of People with Disabilities. By endorsing this Declaration, we organisations state openly our agreement with the vision of the Madrid Declaration and commit to undertake actions which will contribute to the process that will bring about real equality for all disabled people and their families.