EUROPEAN DISABILITY FORUM 21st/22nd June 2025 in Lithuania
Hanka Mayhew
It is with great sadness that our President Jernej Sluga passed away unexpectedly at the European Disability Forum in Vilnius. He was driven to support people who are living with aphasia, raising awareness all over the world, he was a fighter to help disabled persons and show them that life is beautiful again. His zest for life was unstoppable. He will be truly missed by his colleagues and friends. His optimism and laughter will stay with us forever.
European Disability Forum (EDF) is an umbrella organisation for all disabilities across Europe. EDF has 115 members and Association Internationale Aphasie (AIA) is one of them. The forum in Vilnius was attended by 200 people.
At the conference Jernej spoke to Mr Borut Sever, Director of Foundation for Financing Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and Humanitarian Organisations of the Republic of Slovenia, who said that, “the conference was great, because the topic ‘The right to decide – legal capacity and pathways to reform’ is important for all of us, especially regarding legislative changes in many countries, which are not going in the right direction. General Assembly gave us a great opportunity to exchange knowledge, and examples of good practice. Meetings helped us to meet new people, with whom we will work together, on building a better world and a better and more inclusive society.”
During my conversation with Mr Primož Jeralič, Independent Expert Associate of the National Council of Disability Organisations of the Republic of Slovenia, he said that, “The EDF Assembly is always full of interesting lectures on current events affecting the lives of people with disabilities in the EU. Personally, I miss more self-initiative from individual national umbrella organisations, as well as more pressure from the EDF at the highest political level in Europe, or in the European Parliament. Due to a lack of understanding on the part of political decision-makers and generalisations, people with disabilities are often deprived of good solutions that would later lead to a higher quality, more inclusive and more independent life. At the same time, I can emphasize that people with disabilities themselves must not allow themselves to be humiliated and overlooked when our rights, which are also written down in the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, are clearly violated.”
A special thanks to the organiser Una Brown, who looked after us when the tragedy of Jernej’s passing was made known, Catherine Naughton, the heart of EDF, André Felix, EDF Communications Coordinator, who wrote a moving tribute to Jernej Sluga and all the wonderful Slovenian people who gave me support after the conference.