1 Act No. XXVI. of 1998[1]
On Provision of
the Rights of Persons Living with Disability
and Their Equal
of Opportunities[2]
Preamble
Persons living with disability are members of society with equal dignity
and equal standing who are able to exercise the rights and opportunities to
which all are entitled only with considerable difficulties or not at all. In
the interest of easing the disadvantages of persons living with disability, to
lay the foundations for their equality of opportunity and to shape the attitude
of society, Parliament – in harmony with the Constitution and the generally recognized
rules of international law – adopts the following act:
Chapter I
General provisions
The aim of the act
Section 1
The aim of this act is to define the rights of persons living with
disability and the instruments for the exercise of these rights, further to
regulate the complex rehabilitation to be provided for persons living with
disability, and as a result of all these, to ensure equality of opportunity,
independent living and active participation in the life of society for persons
living with disability.
Basic principles
Section 2
(1) The state, the organizations of society and their members must carry
out their activity in such a way that it cannot cause damage leading to the
development of disability, and they must create conditions in which persons
living with disability are able to live a fuller life and the burdens arising
from their disability can be eased.
(2) In the course of behavior and activity related to persons living
with disability, action must be taken in such a way that it prevents
deterioration of the state of disability and eases its consequences.
(3) In the course of planning and decision-making processes the special
needs of persons living with disability must be given particular attention and
it must be taken into account that persons living with disability are able to
take advantage of the possibilities available to all only if special solutions
are applied.
(4) In the course of decisions affecting persons living with disability
it must be taken into account that persons living with disability are equal
members of society and the local community and for this reason the conditions
enabling them to participate in the life of society must be created.
(5) The state must provide for the respect of the rights of persons
living with disability, and for the operation of a system of institutions
compensating the disadvantages of persons living with disability, in harmony
with the possibilities of the national economy at the given time.
Section 3
Due to their condition, persons living with disability are less able to
exercise the rights to which they are entitled in the same way as everyone else
and it is therefore justified that they should be given priority in every
possible way.
Explanatory provisions
Section 4
For the purposes of application of this act:
a) person living with disability: anyone who is to a
significant extent or entirely not in possession of sensory – particularly
sight, hearing – locomotors or intellectual functions, or who is substantially
restricted in communication and is thereby placed at a permanent disadvantage
regarding active participation in the life of society;
b) rehabilitation: a process realized in the health
care, mental hygiene, education, training, retraining, employment and social
welfare systems, aimed at developing or maintaining the level of capability of
the person living with disability for participation in the life of society, and
at promoting independent living;
c) aid: means serving to
partially or fully make up for the partial or full lack of physical or sensory
capability in persons living with disability;
d) supporting service:
service aimed at promoting independent living for persons living with disability,
at meeting their everyday needs and realized through personal participation;
e) residential home: form of
residence for a small community, promoting independent living for persons
living with disability.
Chapter II
Rights to which persons living with
disability are entitled
Environment
Section 5
(1) The person living with disability has the right to a man-made
environment that presents no obstacles, can be perceived and is safe.
(2) The right set out in paragraph (1) above applies particularly to possibilities
for orientation in traffic and the man-made environment.
Communication
Section 6
(1) Persons living with disability, their family members and helpers
must be ensured the possibility of access to information of public interest, as
well as to information related to the rights to which the disabled are entitled
and the services provided for them.
(2) Information is accessible if the person living with disability can
perceive it and if it ensures for him or her the
possibility of appropriate interpretation.
Section 7
The conditions for mutual information must be made possible when persons
substantially impeded in communication make use of the public services.
Transport
Section 8
The transport systems, further the means of public transport and
passenger traffic facilities – including signals and information installations
– must be made suitable for safe use by persons living with disability.
Section 9
Mobility for persons substantially impeded in transport may also be
ensured by operating a network providing transport, from the place of departure
to the destination.
Section 10
Provisions must be made for the creation of parking spaces of suitable
number and size in public parking areas for the use of persons with disability
impeded in transport, in keeping with the separate regulation.
Supporting service, aids
Section 11
Use of the supporting service appropriate to the needs justified by the
disability, and aids must be provided for persons living with disability. A
separate regulation shall determine the range of aids obtainable at a subsidized
price, the manner and extent of support.
Chapter III
Target areas for the equalization of
opportunities
Health care
Section 12
(1) In the course of providing health care for persons living with disability
– in harmony with Act CLIV of 1997 – the needs arising from their disability
must be taken into account.
(2) Persons living with disability must be provided – in conjunction
with the disability – with regular and efficacious health care needed for the
improvement of their condition and to prevent the deterioration of their
condition. Persons caring for persons living with disability must be ensured
the possibility of special training and further training.
(3) In the course of health care for persons living with disability,
efforts must be made to ensure that the care promotes rehabilitation and social
integration and does not strengthen the sense of illness.
Education, training
Section 13
(1) It is the right of the person living with disability to take part in
early development and care corresponding to his or her condition and depending
on age, to kindergarten training, school training and education and development
preparation for such education, in keeping with the provisions of the act on public
education.
(2) If it is advantageous for development of the capabilities of the
person living with disability – in keeping with the opinion of the expert and
rehabilitation committee set up for this purpose – the person living with
disability shall take part in kindergarten training and school education
together with other children and pupils, in the same kindergarten group or
school class.
Section 14
The kindergarten and school providing the kindergarten training and
school training and education of a child living with disability shall be chosen
by the parent on the basis of the opinion of the expert and rehabilitation
committee.
Employment
Section 15
(1) Person living with disability are entitled
to integrated employment or, in the absence of such employment, to sheltered
employment.
(2) The employer providing employment must ensure the workplace
environment to the extent required to perform the work, in particular ensuring
the suitable modification of tools and equipment. Applications can be made to
the central budget for support to cover the costs of such modifications.
Section 16
If employment of the person living with disability cannot be ensured
within the frame of integrated employment, as far as possible the right to work
must be ensured for him or her through the operation of special workplaces. The
central budget extends normative support to such sheltered workplaces.
Place of residence
Section 17
Persons living with disability have the right to choose a form of
residence – family home, residential home, institution – corresponding to their
disability and personal circumstances.
Culture, sport
Section 18
(1) It must be made possible for persons living with disability to visit
educational, cultural, sports and other community facilities.
(2) The use of sports and leisure facilities must be made accessible to
persons living with disability in order to create the possibility for
participation in sports.
(3) Leisure and mass sports for persons living with disability are
supported by the Miklós Wesselényi
National Youth and Leisure Sport Public Foundation, and competitive and elite
sport by the Aladár Gerevich
National Sport Public Foundation.
Chapter IV
Rehabilitation
The right to rehabilitation
Section 19
Persons living with disability have the right to rehabilitation. The
exercise of this right is ensured by rehabilitation services and care.
Section 20
The Government shall set up a public foundation to carry out the state
task set out in Section 21 below. Acts or government regulations may set
further tasks for the public foundation.
The rehabilitation service and care
Section 21
In the interest of achieving the rehabilitation of persons living with
disability, the public foundation shall provide the following services:
a) publication of a
system of criteria for the elaboration of drafts for a suitable program
corresponding to the existing or developable capabilities of persons living
with disability, comprising the regular measurement of the development of
capability achieved in the course of the rehabilitation process and making
possible the amendment or further development of the rehabilitation program as
required;
b) organization
of access to the services and benefits specified in the rehabilitation program;
c) co-operation
with the organizations and persons taking part in the process of
rehabilitation, monitoring their rehabilitation activity;
d) elaboration
of the directions for development of aids and the supply of aids;
e) elaboration
of the considerations to be taken into account by the helping services and in
creating a network of such services;
f) elaboration
of professional–methodological recommendations based on the experiences gained
in the rehabilitation process;
g)
gathering data and information related to the organizations
providing the service and the rehabilitation services they provide, in the
interest of informing persons living with disability, their family members and
helpers.
Chapter V
The cost of disability pension
Section 22
Persons above the age of 18 years with serious disability are entitled
to disability support to cover in part the additional costs arising from the
disability, as set out in a separate act.
Section 23
The monthly sum of the disability support shall be equivalent to 80% of
the minimum old-age pension at the given time.
Chapter VI
National Disability Council
Section 24
(1) The National Disability Council (hereinafter: Council) shall assist
the Government in carrying out its tasks related to disability affairs.
(2) The Council
a) takes
initiatives, makes proposals, gives opinions and co-ordinates in
decision-making related to persons living with disability,
b) carries
out analysis and evaluation in the process of implementation of decisions.
(3) The Council
a)
gives its opinion on draft regulations affecting persons living with
disability;
b)
makes proposals for decisions, programs and legal regulation affecting persons
living with disability;
c)
takes part in the co-ordination of activities affecting the affairs of persons
living with disability;
d) regularly
informs the Government on trends in the life situation of persons living with
disability.
(4) The Council elaborates the National Disability Affairs Program and
monitors its implementation.
Section 25
(1) The members of the Council:
a) deputy state
secretaries of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of the Environment
and Regional Development, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Water
Management, the Ministry of Culture and Education, the Ministry of Labor, the
Ministry of Welfare, the Ministry of Finance;
b) four
persons delegated by national organizations representing the interests of the
physically disabled, the deaf, the blind and the mentally disabled persons;
c) two
persons delegated by the organizations of sheltered workplaces;
d) one
person delegated by the federation grouping national bodies representing the
interests of local authorities;
e) two
persons delegated by non-profit organizations operating in the interest of
persons living with disability.
(2) The president of the Council is the minister of welfare.
(3) The Council holds its sessions as required, but at least quarterly.
(4) The Council has a quorum if more than half of the members are
present.
(5) The operating costs of the Council must be ensured by the central
budget as an item in the budget of the Ministry of Welfare.
Chapter VII
National Disability Program
Section 26
(1) In the interest of laying the foundations for the measures needed to
create equality of opportunity for persons living with disability, Parliament
shall draw up a National Disability Program (hereinafter: Program). The
contents of the Program must be taken into account when making decisions in the
areas of planning for health, employment, education and transport, in regional
development and in other state planning.
(2) The Government shall provide for elaboration of the Program and for
submitting it – through the minister of welfare – to Parliament in the form of
a draft Parliamentary Resolution.
(3) The Program shall contain the following
a) a
presentation of the social situation of the population living with disability;
b) identification
of the aims related to rehabilitation;
c) tasks
needed to bring about a favorable change in social attitudes affecting persons
living with disability;
d) identification
of the system of conditions needed for improvement of the quality of life of
persons living with disability and their families;
e)
plans promoting the active participation in social life of persons living with
disability;
f) definition of the
justified extent to be attained in transformation of the transport systems
(public transport means, passenger traffic facilities), transport and the
man-made environment, and in the target state of special education and special
employment, in line with the number of persons living with disability and their
socially recognized needs;
g)
specification of the necessary means and institutions,
and the necessary financial sources for attainment of the goals set.
(4) The Program shall be adopted by Parliament. The Government shall
report annually to Parliament on its implementation. Parliament shall
re-examine the resolution at least once every four years.
Chapter VIII
Protection of the rights to which
persons living with disability are entitled, responsibility for the tasks
arising from the act[3]
Section 27
Any person suffering an unlawful disadvantage because of his or her
disability shall be entitled to all the rights which apply in the case of
violation of individual rights.
Final provisions
Section 28
This act shall enter into force on
Section 29
(1) Transport systems, public transport means and passenger traffic
facilities – including signals and information installations – already
operating at the time of proclamation must be gradually, but by
(2) The network providing transport regulated in Section 9 of the
present act must be built up gradually, but must be completed by
(3) The objective and staffing conditions for the special education of
persons living with disability regulated in Section 13 above must be created
gradually, but must be completed by
(4) The conditions set out in Section 16 above for the employment of
persons living with disability in special workplaces must be created gradually,
but must be completed by
(5) Institutions providing long-term residence for persons living with
disability must be altered gradually, but by 1 January 2010 at the latest, in
such a way that care for persons living with disability capable of independent
living with personal help are housed in residential homes for small
communities, further that humanized, modernized institutional care must be
provided for persons living with serious disability who are in need of such
care.
(6) Public buildings already existing at the time of proclamation of
this act must be made obstacle-free gradually, but by
(7) The National Disability Affairs Council shall be set up within three
months of the time this act comes into effect.
(8) The Government shall submit the Program to Parliament by
Section 30
(1) The Government is authorized to set out the following in a
regulation:
a) detailed
rules for determining disability;
b) rules
for the award and payment of disability support;
c) rules
for the operation and financing of special workplaces.
(2) The minister of welfare is authorized to set out in a regulation the
professional rules for the establishment and operation of supporting services.
|
Árpád Göncz President of the
Republic |
Dr. Zoltán Gál Chairman of
Parliament |
[1] With some comments of György
Könczei, Ph.D. (Professor at ELTE GYFK, Visiting Fulbright Research
Professor at
A general
comment: a lot of significant investigations has been made in Hungary by people
with disabilities, their interest groups, pressure groups, organizations and
professionals, professional organizations, the Ministry of Welfare (namely the
Minister: Mihály Kökény MD) in
order to create this law. New proposals have been made year by year since 1991.
The Regulation conception – also available in English – was made in July 1997
in the Ministry of Welfare. However, the last important step has been taken by
two members of Parliament: Ms. Gabriella Béki MP and Mr.
György Szigeti MP dr. iur.
They presented the codified version that was made in Ministry of Welfare in the
Parliament of Hungary in February 1998.
[2] The act was
passed by Parliament at its session – last day – on
[3] This is the
non-discrimination paragraph. The para.
refers to the Civil Code. The 76 § of the Civil Code
prohibits any kind of – negative – discrimination on the ground of sex, race,
nationality or religion. (But it does not mention disability,
this is why it was necessary to refer to it in the law.)
The 84 § of
the Civil Code says that in the case of violation of any individual rights, the
aggrieved party may bring the question before the court in order to let the
court decided the infringement etc.