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Newsletter December 2024 - english text


Influencing Public Policies


BRUTAL ADJUSTMENT AND PERSECUTION OF THE MOST VULNERABLE GROUPS

In Argentina, a fiscal adjustment process is being carried out at the expense of the vast majority. At Rumbos, we join the fight for basic rights by participating in various mobilizations. Work, housing, food, and health are basic needs that should not be subject to government cuts.


HISTORIC RULING: THE CURRENT BUENOS AIRES CITY BUILDING CODE HAS BEEN DECLARED NULL FOR VIOLATING THE PARTICIPATORY PROCESS

After nearly 5 years since a class action lawsuit was initiated by Eduardo Joly - Rumbos’ President - against the Buenos Aires Legislature, Judge Liberatori ruled in favor of the demands of persons under conditions of disability, declaring Laws 6100 and 6438 null and void. She ruled that the rights to citizen participation were violated during the legislative process required to modify the Code, without full compliance of the Public Hearing Law, the Constitution of the City of Buenos Aires, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The judge noted that: “(...) it is the legislators themselves who turned a significant instance of citizen participation into mere decoration, a show, a device to superficially fulfill what they saw as a mere formality to quickly discard.”Read more: STATEMENT 1

As expected, the Buenos Aires Legislature appealed the ruling. Meanwhile, its effects remain suspended. However, precautionary measures can still be requested before the judge. We defend the ruling and await the decision of the Appeals Court.Read more: STATEMENT 2


IN THE MEDIA

More than 60 national media outlets covered our press releases, published notes on this topic, and conducted radio and television interviews with us.


WE CELEBRATE OUR FIRST 30 YEARS AND RENEW OUR FIGHTING SPIRIT


Community involvement and networking


BUENOS AIRES CITY

PLAYÓN PARK, COLEGIALES NEIGHBORHOOD. 

MECHANISMS OF NON-PARTICIPATION AND LACK OF LISTENING

Along with the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association (APEBI), the Argentine Library for the Blind (BAC), and the Network for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (REDI), we filed a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman regarding inaccessible conditions at the Parque Ferroviario. These conditions had already been brought to the attention of the Buenos Aires City Government (GCBA). The Ombudsman’s office verified the complaint and acknowledged that: the resting areas, amphitheater, and botanical space have cobblestones that hinder people with reduced mobility; of the 61 benches, only 9 are accessible; and there is a lack of signage for the blind.

In response to these claims, tactile maps were created, and the entrance on Zabala Street was leveled. The General Directorate of Universal Accessibility within the Commission for the Full Participation and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (COPIDIS) agreed to develop a Good Practices Manual for the universal design of green spaces, parks, and plazas that includes all required accessibility standards. In preparing this manual, will COPIDIS involve organizations of people with disabilities?


NO TO AN UNHEALTHY AND EXPULSIVE CITY! 

Ignoring citizens’ concerns, the Buenos Aires Legislature approved a law modifying the City of Buenos Aires Urban Code. We participated in the Public Hearing prior to its enactment alongside many speakers and denounced that it fails to address the real issues troubling residents: overconstruction, destruction of low-rise neighborhoods and local heritage, collapse of public services, lack of public green spaces, protection of trees, lack of integration of informal neighborhoods, and lack of accessibility in transportation and public spaces. We support the demands of Colegiales Participa y Decide in the defense of public space at the Playón de Colegiales and celebrate the retrieval of 4 lots for the park — an achievement resulting from neighborhood struggle and organization.


BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE:

EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENTS PROMOTING THE INCLUSION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN THEIR COMMUNITIES

Coordinated by REDI, a report was prepared to present before the Committee on the Rights of Children. There, we highlighted that the main obstacles are procedural, reproducing a system of segregation. Among other findings, we emphasized the persistence of housing “quotas” in the construction of new homes and the fact that the placement of objects (e.g., adapted playgrounds, ramps, signage) is disconnected from the routes that give them meaning, rendering ineffective their role as “support elements”.

READ THE REPORT


ROGGERO ECOLOGICAL DISTRICT: ACCESSIBILITY ADAPTATION OF TOURIST CIRCUITS AND PROPOSALS (ARTICLE 27, MUNICIPAL ORDINANCE NO. 7164/24)

We celebrate that the creation of the Roggero Ecological District (a strategic platform of the current administration for Moreno’s territorial development) includes the Program for the Promotion of Sustainable Tourist Development (Chapter VI). This program proposes, among other goals, to develop visitability proposals that promote the inclusion of people under conditions of disability and incorporate accessibility adaptations as a territorial practice. Activating these goals and striving for an Inclusive Cultural Landscape is already on the 2025 agenda!

LEARN ABOUT THE BACKGROUND: VISITABILITY WORKSHOPS

CONSULT THE MUNICIPAL ORDINANCE NO. 7164/24 (PAGES 15 TO 25)


RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF PHYSICALLY AND SOCIALLY ACCESSIBLE ENVIRONMENTS FROM A HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH

The Undersecretariat of Human Rights of the Province of Buenos Aires issued a guide that solidifies its commitment to transforming Memory Spaces by progressively incorporating accessibility conditions, with the joint participation of people with and without disabilities. Participating in this initiative, named after José Poblete Roa—a militant of the Frente de Lisiados Peronistas, who was kidnapped and murdered during the last civic-military dictatorship, is an honor.

READ THE GUIDE


CURRENT CHALLENGES” CONFERENCE - 30th ANNIVERSARY OF COMUNIDIS

The Municipal Council for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities (COMUNIDIS) brings together disability field leaders. At Rumbos, as active members, we commend the challenge of encouraging leadership by persons under conditions of disability themselves, opening this space to their participation as peers in the difficult task of working toward a more inclusive society.


PERSONNEL TRAINING ON ACCESS TO RIGHTS IN THE ATTENTION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES (MUNICIPAL ORDINANCE NO. 7175/24, PROVINCIAL LAW NO. 15296)

The Community Development Department organized the first mandatory training session for public officials. Invited as a trainer, Architect Cecilia González Campo stated:

“It is essential to ask what values we want to keep and which ones we need to discard in Habitat policies that aim at regenerating degraded spaces (...) Territorial working groups cannot exclude the people affected by the decisions being made. Participatory design processes have been reduced to a negotiation of interests: what you ask for and what I give. We must regain these spaces and enrich them again by truly listening to the experiences of disability.”


Academic and Community-based Activities


ACCESSIBLE AND SAFE SIDEWALKS PROGRAM (VAS):

STUDIES OF ACCESSIBILITY CONDITIONS IN PUBLIC SPACES

As part of the UBANEX 13 Program, and continuing with the Disability and Accessibility Program and Professor Lucioni’s geography course of the School of Humanities of the University of Buenos Aires (FILO, UBA), we surveyed the vicinity of the Durand Municipal Hospital. The results were presented at a joint meeting of the Commissions of Disability and Public Space within the Buenos Aires Legislature. 


We also conducted a survey in the surroundings of the Health and Community Action Center # 12 (CESAC 12) with the Durand Hospital Gerontology Team and the Seniors Area of ​​the University Extension Secretariat of the School of Humanities of the University of Buenos Aires.

We continue to insist that sidewalk maintenance should be the responsibility of the State and not of the residents.


MEETINGS, SEMINARS, CONFERENCES AND CLASSES

HIGHLIGHTS:

Seminars on Inclusive Design I (How to approach its implementation) and II (Implementation based on diverse contexts and users), organized by the College of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires (CAPBA).


On the ruling annulling the Building Code of the City of Buenos Aires: Presentations by Silvia Coriat, Varina Suleiman, and Cecilia García Rizzo at the hybrid discussion Spatial Social Justice and Disability, Faculty of Law, UBA, organized by the Gioja Institute (June 18).


Habitat and family organization – a legal case: Presentation by Silvia Coriat at the World Congress on Supports and Care for Adults and Older Persons, Faculty of Law, UBA (August 29).Read: PAPER


Can disability promote architecture that contributes to new ways of living together? Annual Conference of the Undersecretariat of Mental Health, Moreno (November 6).Read: PAPER


Accessibility contributions to landscape design. Open lecture by Architect Cecilia González Campo, META PAISAJE course, Planning and Landscape Design. FADU, UBA (October 24).

Talks on accessibility for the Advisory Council of Commune 2, condominium managers of the CABA Council of Economic Sciences, and students of Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality at Tertiary Institute 32 in CABA.


ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT AT RAÍZEN REFINERY FACILITY (DOCK SUD, AVELLANEDA)

Raízen aims to incorporate workers with disabilities into the company. We were commissioned to carry out a diagnostic report to identify the extent to which the establishment is suitable for the development of activities that take place there. We approached the task from the logic of mobility, and use and spatial perception of persons under conditions of disability. We proposed the need for protocols and adaptations that would lead to the progressive incorporation of accessibility.



NOW MORE THAN EVER, WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO CONTINUE DEFENDING WHAT WE HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO ACHIEVE.  NOT A WHEEL, CANE OR STEP BACK!


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