The Mesa del Parlament, the governing body of Catalonia’s Parliament, has accepted a cross-party proposal to revise disability-related language in 25 Catalan laws. The planned changes are intended to remove outdated or offensive expressions and align legislation with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
For disabled people dealing with regional public services and legal rules, the measure concerns the wording used in the laws governing those areas. It does not, at this stage, create a new application process or announce changes to individual benefits or services.
Joint parliamentary group will draft the bill
According to the Parlament de Catalunya, the proposal was put forward by PSC-Units, Junts, ERC, PPC, the Comuns and CUP-DT. It provides for a joint parliamentary working group to write a bill updating the terminology.
The groups must now appoint the MPs who will sit on that working group. The source material does not give a deadline for the drafting process or say when the proposed bill could be put to a parliamentary vote.
Revision tied to UN disability rights convention
The initiative seeks to adapt Catalan legislation to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly. The sponsoring groups said existing Catalan legislation still contains terms that do not meet international recommendations on disability-inclusive language.
The terminology review is separate from the Civil Code of Catalonia reform approved by the Parlament on 22 July. That reform adapts Catalan civil law to Article 12 of the same UN convention, replacing decision-making by others with a system of support intended to respect a person’s autonomy, wishes and preferences.
The immediate next step in the terminology initiative is the appointment of MPs to the joint working group, which will prepare the proposed legislative text.
Primary sources: govern.cat, govern.cat, govern.cat. Reported by russpain.com, Redacció/Fonts, europapress.es, La Vanguardia, agencia, redaccio, Parlament de Catalunya, CatalunyaPress.es, social.cat, ungeneva.org.
