Today is the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The theme is “fighting for rights in the post-COVID era”. More than ever that means removing barriers and inequalities and ensuring a more accessible world for all.
As the world celebrates the Day, we live and almost every day of our life we get to meet and work with PWDs. As we work towards the end of the COVID pandemic, fighting for the rights of PWD is very crucial.
It is very important to note that Covid19 has widened inequalities, making disability inclusion even more challenging but extremely important. A society’s moral standing is determined by the treatment it metes out to people with disabilities. On this day, let us pledge to work for disability-inclusive development!
There is now over 1.3 BILLION people around the world that identify as having a disability (nearly 4.5 in AUS – 20% of the pop!) and every single one of them deserves the right to live the lives they want to live.
We need to celebrate human uniqueness, achievements and contributions of people with disabilities in our communities, and ensure there is the inclusion of persons with disabilities. One group of PWD that has been forgotten for a long is autistic people due to poor systems that have been discriminatory towards them. If ever we wish to witness the growth and development of our society we need to acknowledge and recognise the efforts of PWDs.
During the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20, Member States agreed to launch a process to develop a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whose achievement period concludes in 2015. The SDGs are to address all three dimensions of sustainable development (environmental, economic and social) and be coherent with and integrated into the United Nations global development agenda beyond 2015. The envisaged SDGs have a time horizon of 2015 to 2030.
Disability is referenced in various parts of the SDGs and specifically in parts related to education, growth and employment, inequality, accessibility of human settlements, as well as data collection and monitoring of the SDGs, for instance:
Goal 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of life-long learning opportunities for all focuses on eliminating gender disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities. In addition, the proposal calls for building and upgrading education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and also provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all.
In Goal 8: to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, the international community aims to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
Closely linked is Goal 10, which strives to reduce inequality within and among countries by empowering and promoting the social, economic and political inclusion of all, including persons with disabilities.
Goal 11 would work to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable. To realize this goal, Member States are called upon to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, such as persons with disabilities. In addition, the proposal calls for providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for persons with disabilities.
And lastly, goal 17 stresses that in order to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, the collection of data and monitoring and accountability of the SDGs are crucial. Member States are called upon to enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS), which would significantly increase the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data that is also disaggregated by disability.
