Disability Advocates Remind Governments to “Keep the Promise” on International Day

of Persons with Disabilities — 3 December

 

1 December (Department of Economic and Social Affairs) — Seizing the momentum created by the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals in September, the international disability community and advocates around the world will stand together with Governments, global leaders, policy makers and other stakeholders, to call for inclusion of persons with disabilities and their needs in all aspects of development efforts, when they commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December.

“At the high-level plenary meeting on the Millennium Development Goals earlier this year, Governments recognized that development policies and actions must also focus on inclusion of persons with disabilities, so that they benefit from progress made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” says Akiko Ito, Chief of the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“Although many commitments have been made by the international development community to include persons with disabilities in all aspects of development,” Ms. Ito added, “the flagrant gap between policy and practice continues.”

“Keeping the promise:  Mainstreaming disability in the Millennium Development Goals towards 2015 and beyond” is the theme of this year’s commemoration of the International Day.

There are approximately 650 million persons with disabilities in the world, or 10 per cent of the global population.  An estimated 80 per cent of these persons live in developing countries, many in conditions of poverty.

In both developed and developing countries, evidence suggests that persons with disabilities are disproportionately represented among the world’s poor and tend to be poorer than their counterparts without disabilities.  It is also estimated that of the world’s poorest people — those who live on less than one dollar a day and who lack access to basic necessities such as food, clean water, clothing and shelter — 1 in 5 is a person with disabilities.

The Day will be observed at United Nations Headquarters on 2 and 3 December with a series of panel discussions and seminars, as well as a film festival.

With 107 countries co-sponsoring, the General Assembly adopted just last month a resolution entitled “Realizing the Millennium Development Goals for persons with disabilities towards 2015 and beyond”.  This year’s commemoration aims to further raise awareness of the urgency for disability-inclusive development and the need to take concrete action to ensure that persons with disabilities fully participate in all aspects of society and development, including the Millennium Development Goals.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first new human rights treaty of the 21^st century, has been signed by 147 countries since 30 March 2007 and ratified by 96 as of 3 December.

The Convention, one of the fastest treaties ever negotiated at the United Nations and one of the fastest to enter into force, has the strong support of United Nations Member States, as well as advocacy by the global disability movement, which was instrumental in drafting the treaty.

For more information, please contact:  Fred Doulton, Secretariat of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Tel.: 1 212 963 4466; E-mail:  doultonf@un.org

* *** *

For information media • not an official record