MYSUK Y.I.,

postgraduate student of Theory and Philosophy of Law department

ILP NU Lviv Polytechnic

The genesis of the legal status model of persons with disabilities

The genesis of the rights and freedoms of citizens reveals their progress in accordance with the historical stages of development of the state and society. The scientists singled out models of disability in order to define the fundamental principles and standards in the field of legal status of persons with disabilities. These models show a trend of state’s legal policy.

The science has developed many models of disabled persons status in society (see. [1]). In a broad sense, in our view, they can be divided into two maternal: restrictive and social.

To the restrictive we can include the following areas: religious (consider disability as a punishment for sins); medical (focuses on organic pathology or dysfunction, leading to the need for isolation or correction); economical (restriction of participation in the active labor activity); functional limitations (identification of barriers that prevent people with disabilities to be integrated into society and participate in the life of a family or of society on the same basis as other members of society); eugenic (the foundation was the doctrine about improving of "the human breed' by biological means that comes from the recognition of physical and mental non-equivalence of races, that in practice was expressed in physical destruction of disabled persons for renovation of race purity).

Generally the nature of restrictive model can be summarized in the following positions: a disability is a personal problem, not a social problem; disabled person - is a social and economic burden for healthy people; resolving of difficulties in the life activity of disabled persons is rest on them, they must adjust to the social structure of healthy people; state's legal policy is based on discriminatory ideologies concerning this category of persons.

The radical manifestations of the restrictive model can be found in the historical reality. Up to 1945 about five thousand children were killed through lethal injection, starvation, denial of medical care and use of chemical weapons. Since 1939, this program has also been aimed at disabled adults. Forty thousand people among adults with physical and mental disabilities were killed during the 1939 - 1940 by doctors of the Third Reich [2, p. 22 - 27].

Gradually a humanocentrism ideology is spreading, that’s why such an attitude to people with disabilities does not meet moral and legal paradigms of developed society and the principles of legal regulation of civilized nations. Discriminatory policy to many categories of persons is changing. Without excepting are people with disabilities. Therefore, the next model is social. Its essence is to overcome social barriers for people with disabilities, absence of discrimination based on health status, social adaptability of disabled. For this society overcomes not an easy development path.

The social model requires the adaptation to the reality of disabled persons, along with that requires an adequate readiness of society to accept people with disabilities as equal members of society. These individuals possess the fullness of political, social, economic, physical and cultural rights and freedoms. This equality should manifest in equal legal status of disabled persons along with other members of society and creating the appropriate measures to ensure this status. The discrimination on the grounds of health status not only is forbidden, but also punishable under the law. However, realizing that in addition to equality disabled persons need care and protection by the state authorities, civil society, it’s created additional guarantees for the implementation of persons with disabilities their rights and to ensure the proper level of sustainability.

A significant feature of this model is the standard of individuality. That is the legal policy of modern state provides an individual approach to persons with disabilities identifying the needs of each individual. The procedure and conditions of identifying needs due to disability are established based on the opinion of medical and social expertise and considering the abilities of disabled persons to the professional and household activities. The types and amounts of the required social security of a disabled person are provided in the form of individual program of medical, social and vocational rehabilitation and adaptation [3, p.163].

The next component of the social model is to provide a person with disabilities an opportunity to be active in social life. Important is the social adaptation, i.e. "adaptation of human as a personality to living in society according to the requirements of society and to their own needs, motives and interests" [4] and others. A person with a disability should be able to defend his/her interests, to integrate into society, be an active member, and communicate with various social groups. In fact, "the society and the state can effectively develop only if the needs and interests of each member of society are guaranteed and the appropriate level of realization and protection of rights and freedoms is ensured" [5, p.1].

The problem of the disabled from a practical point of view is their limited social and active opportunities, since there is a large range of obstacles to the realization of their rights and interests. The passing of process of social and psychological adaptation and its further adaptability depends on two factors: 1) social environment that has acceptable characteristics and is facilitating the adaptation of the individual; 2) personal adaptive potential - individual psychophysical features which define the degree of acceptability and possibilities of further person’s adaptation to a particular social environment [6, p.205]. Therefore, legal policy must have a bilateral character. On the one hand to ensure social adaptation of persons with disabilities, their free development, socio-economic opportunities, personal potential. On the other to educate citizens of the state to respect the rights and freedoms of others, to take measures to increase the level of legal culture to overcome problems of discriminatory manifestations among the population.

Despite the fact that international standards and national legislation in the field of the legal status of persons with disabilities declares social model of this category of people, though in practical field remains a number of gaps and problems. Nowadays persons with disabilities are part of the population with low socio-economic status and potential for personal realization. Therefore an important condition of modern legal reality should become a transition from declared to actual protection of rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities.

Literature:

1. Бондар Н. О. Передумови виникнення та формування сучасного світогляду щодо моделей інвалідності: міжнародний досвід / Н. О. Бондар // Бізнес Інформ. - 2013. - № 3. - С. 244-248.

2. Russell M. Disability at the End of the Social Contract / M. Russell, B. Ramps. – Monroe, ME : Common Courage Press, 1998. – 256 p.

3. Захист інвалідів за законодавством України // Бюлетень Міністерства юстиції України. - 2013. - № 8. - С. 163-164.

4. Большой психологический словарь / [под. ред. Б. Г.Мещерякова, В. П. Зинченко. – 3-е изд., доп. и перераб.]. – СПб.: Прайм-Еврознак, 2006. – С. 20.

5. Костюк В. Л. Конвенція ООН про права інвалідів у системі джерел права соціального забезпечення: науково-правовий / В. Л. Костюк // Науковий вісник Міжнародного гуманітарного університету. Серія : Юриспруденція. - 2015. - Вип. 13(1). - С. 127-130.

6. Соболь Є. Ю. Правові гарантії забезпечення соціальної адаптованості осіб з інвалідністю в Україні / Є. Ю. Соболь // Держава і право. Юридичні і політичні науки. - 2013. - Вип. 60. - С. 202-208.