Foreign, family ministers receive chief of UNDP office in Croatia

A cooperation agreement was signed on Friday between the Ministry of Family, War Veterans and Inter-Generational Solidarity and the UN Development Programme Office in Croatia, the ministry said in a statement.

The agreement was signed by Minister Jadranka Kosor and the UNDP permanent representative in Croatia, Yuri Afanasiev.

The agreement refers to monitoring a project of personal assistants for the disabled, and to support in monitoring the implementation of a national strategy for equalising the possibilities of disabled persons in the 2007-15 period.

Kosor recalled that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities went into force on May 3, and that Croatia was the fourth country to have ratified it and the third to have signed it.

She said that Croatia had been implementing the project of personal assistant for the most disabled persons for three years, and that about 300 persons would get an assistant this year.

Afanasiev commended Croatia's care for disabled persons, saying that it was a model in Eastern European countries, and that Croatia would be among the first to have an ombudsperson for the disabled.

Afanasiev was also received by European Integration and Foreign Affairs Minister Gordan Jandrokovic, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the two officials said they were happy with the cooperation between the government and the UNDP Office in Croatia.

Afanasiev commended a joint drive to collect illegal weapons, describing it as one of the most successful of this kind in UN history. The project was carried out by the UNDP Office in Croatia and the Interior Ministry.

Jandrokovic said Croatia was ready to cooperate further with the UNDP, notably in development aid and the destruction of surplus weapons.



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