Our Policy Manager, Mr Alexandre Bloxs, took the opportunity of being in Stockholm following an interview with SVT, the Swedish public TV broadcast, to support grassroots organisations in Sweden through our member, the Swedish Deaf Association (SDR).
SDR is a federation of 40 local associations of the deaf that are active in lobbying for the rights of deaf people at the local level. It initially started after the EUD delivered training to SDR to support their participation in the review of Sweden by the CRPD Committee. During this training, it appeared that there was a crucial need to share this information with SDR members.
For that reason, SDR organised a virtual online training for its members in Stockholm so that Alexandre could share his knowledge and experience on the human rights of deaf people while sharing his insights on the specific challenges encountered by the Swedish deaf community.
The content of the training included a brief overview of the CRPD, an in-depth presentation on the five CPRD articles pertaining to deaf people and national sign languages and how they can be used to bolster a fair and inclusive Swedish labour market for the Swedish deaf community.
At the conclusion of the training, it was outlined the crucial requirements for the grassroots associations to be further empowered and trained on the specific communicational and interpersonal skills and strategies to undertake actual meaningful advocacy work to achieve their rights.
EUD would like to express their gratitude to SDR for their warm welcome and for setting the training objectives that align with the EUD values, the European Commission’s Citizen, Equality, Rights and Value (CERV) Programme as well as the European Pillar of Social Rights.
