Richard Baker, member of the UK Parliament, published a report about people with intellectual disabilities and their families in Ukraine.
Richard Baker is member of the Parliament (MP) of the United Kingdom. Before becoming an MP, Richard Baker worked for Enable, Inclusion Europe member in Scotland.
Richard Baker published a report about the situation of people with intellectual disabilities and their families in Ukraine, and how the Russian war impacts them.
In the United Kingdom, they use the term “learning disabilities” where we use the term “intellectual disabilities”.
Read the report: The Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine on the Rights of People with Learning Disabilities and Austim (PDF)
The report was prepared by Richard Baker in collaboration with our member in Ukraine, the NGO Coalition, and with Inclusion Europe.
What is in the report
Richard Baker writes in his introduction to the report:
“The findings of these reports document, in detail, the impact of the war on people with intellectual disabilities and their families. They show:
- How community support networks have collapsed, leaving families isolated.
- How displacement and housing destruction have driven thousands back into institutions.
- How the healthcare and rehabilitation system has crumbled, cutting off access to medicines and therapies.
- How rights reforms have stalled, with guardianship entrenched and futures uncertain.
Most importantly, this report places these realities alongside the human voices of those living through them. People like Vitaliy Zegelev, who had not left his Kyiv apartment in three years, terrified by air raid sirens and wholly dependent on his mother; Raisa and Yuliia, who embody the daily courage of caregiving under bombardment; and Mykola and Anastasiya Volodin, disabled children abducted from a Kherson institution and taken to Crimea, their identities rewritten under occupation.
Their stories remind us that inclusion, dignity, and the right to live in the community are not luxuries to be postponed until after the war. They are obligations—under international law, under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and above all under the shared principles of humanity.”
The report offers case studies of people and how their lives are impacted. It also offers recommendations for what goverments and organisations should do to support people with intellectual disabilities and their families in Ukraine.
Read the report: The Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine on the Rights of People with Learning Disabilities and Austim (PDF)
You can read also: