I left Brussels with the certainty that, even though I don’t know what the future holds for me (us), I know that I will always have another safe haven. These are my kind of people. That’s my kind of mates. My own community. We fight for each other and extend each other’s hand without looking back. We empower ourselves like no one else can empower us. We scream and protest like no one else can. We will never shut up. We will never be silenced. We came to stay and to stay.
Raquel Banha, Portugal
What is the Freedom Drive?
The Freedom Drive is one of the key campaigns of the European Network on IndependentLiving (ENIL). It has been held every two years since 2003. It provides supporters of the IndependentLiving Movement with the unique opportunity to meet Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), to promote the rights of disabled people and to share experiences and ideas with fellow activists from around Europe. The first 6 editions of the event took place in Strasbourg, until 2015, when the location of the Freedom Drive was changed to Brussels for strategic reasons.
The ENIL 2024 Freedom Drive will once again take place in Brussels, between the 23rd and 25th September. It will consist of a number of events, including workshops and a conference, not to forget a protest march to the European Parliament on the 24th September in the morning. We will also use this opportunity to celebrate the 35th anniversary of ENIL. Under the motto “Reclaiming Our Rights NOW”, we will adopt proposals for the new European legislature and rebuild the Independent Pillars.
The Freedom Drive is aimed at members of ENIL, independent living activists, disabled people and their organisations, allies, policy and decision makers, and anyone else interested in learning about and supporting the right to independent living.
About ENIL
The European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) is a user-led network of disabled people, with members throughout Europe. ENIL is a forum for all disabled people,Independent Living organisations and their non-disabled allies on the issues of Independent Living. ENIL represents the disability movement for human rights and social inclusion based on solidarity, peer support, deinstitutionalisation, democracy, self-representation, cross-disability and self-determination.
ENIL’s vision is of Europe where all disabled people are able to exercise choice and control over their lives, on an equal level with others; where they are valued members of the community and can enjoy all of their human rights, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
ENIL’s mission is to advocate and lobby for Independent Living values, principles and practices, namely for a barrier-free environment, provision of personal assistance support and adequate technical aids, together making full citizenship of disabled people possible. ENIL’s activities target European, national and local administrations, politicians, media, and the general society. ENIL works to strengthen the empowerment of disabled people, mainly through providing resources for peer support and peer-to-peer training. ENIL enhances the European disability sector by providing an arena for the sharing of disabled people’s experience of services and by providing economical, logistics and technical expertise on independent living.