Disability inclusion is an essential condition to upholding human rights, sustainable development, and peace and security. It is also central to the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind.

The annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons was proclaimed in 1992 by United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3. It aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development, and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

Present Challenge

The global crisis of COVID-19 is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing the extent of exclusion and highlighting that work on disability inclusion is imperative. People with disabilities—one billion people— are one of the most excluded groups in our society and are among the hardest hit in this crisis in terms of fatalities.

Even under normal circumstances, persons with disabilities are less likely to access health care, education, employment and to participate in the community. An integrated approach is required to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind.

Theme

This year the Day is observed under the theme: "Building back better: towards an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 world by, for and with persons with disabilities". 

UNESCO is marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities with a week-long programme from 25 November to 3 December 2020 including a Global Awareness Raising Campaign “Tell our stories, enable our rights” on its official social media channels, focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living with disabilities and on the immediate response to the crisis through open, inclusive and innovative use of digital solutions, tools and resources.

UN Disability Inclusion Strategy

    • Launched in June 2019

    • It provides the foundation for sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion through all pillars of the work of the United Nations.

    • Through the Strategy, the United Nations system reaffirms that the full and complete realization of the human rights of all persons with disabilities is an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

About Disability

    • A disability is a condition or function judged to be significantly impaired relative to the usual standard of an individual of their group.

    • The term is often used to refer to individual functioning, including physical impairment, sensory impairment, cognitive impairment, intellectual impairment, mental illness, and various types of chronic disease.

    • Today, the world population is over 7 billion people and more than one billion people, or approximately 15 per cent of the world's population, live with some form of disability.

    • 80% of all people with disabilities live in a developing country.

    • More than 100 million disabled persons are children.

    • Children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to experience violence than non-disabled children.

    • Persons with disabilities, “the world’s largest minority”, have generally poorer health, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities.

    • This is largely due to the lack of services available to them (like information and communications technology (ICT), justice or transportation) and the many obstacles they face in their everyday lives. 

    • People with disabilities are at much higher risk of violence:

        ◦ Children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to experience violence than non-disabled children.

        ◦ Adults with some form or disability are 1.5 times more likely to be a victim of violence than those without a disability.

        ◦ Adults with mental health conditions are at nearly four times the risk of experiencing violence.

    • Factors which place people with disabilities at higher risk of violence include stigma, discrimination, and ignorance about disability, as well as a lack of social support for those who care for them.

    • Under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), disability is an evolving concept that “results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”

    • Accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities are fundamental rights recognized by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and are not only objectives, but also pre-requisites for the enjoyment of other rights. 

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)