From the month of June, we are starting a monthly column called “Equal speak” by disability activist and researcher Mohammed Yousuf. – TwoCircles.net.
By Mohammed Yousuf for TwoCircles.net,
I feel honored to be given this opportunity to contribute a piece on disability development and inclusion in this column every month; as a person who has lived with a disability, it means a lot, and there are number of things I’d think of that would be worth bringing to you through this medium – reflections of the issues or a narrative of the opportunities – it will not be enough to showcase the problems and the potential that people with disabilities have endured and exhibited around the world. However, this month I would like to devote some time on two historic events that took place in June 2011.
On June 9, 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank released the first ever World report on disability, which was produced jointly by them. The report suggests that more than a billion people in the world today experience disability. The report urged governments to step up efforts to enable access to mainstream services and to invest in specialized programs to unlock the vast potential of people with disabilities. This report also mentions that people with disabilities generally have poor 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 and the many obstacles they face in their everyday lives.
This pioneering World report on disability will make a significant contribution to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Interestingly, the treaty saw the number of countries ratifying the first legally binding human rights focusing exclusively on the rights of people with disability, rise to 100. Pakistan joined 100 other countries in ratifying CRPD. The Convention is truly a breakthrough in giving people with disabilities, including children, the protection to which they are entitled. Instead of being treated as objects of charity, the Convention represents powerful instruments for rights-based and inclusive development of all.
To get world Report on Disability and to read more about CRPD, click on the links below:
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789240685215_eng.pdf
http://www.un.org/disabilities/
While the disability report provides the best available evidence about what works to overcome barriers to health care, rehabilitation, education, employment, and support services, and the CRPD would ensure the human rights to people with disabilities. To help unlock the potential of over one billion people with disabilities all over the world, you and I need to get involved and create environments which will enable people with disabilities to flourish. To mainstream over a billion people would take more than just a village. The trillions of dollars that are lost due to the presence of disability could otherwise be channeled to flow back into the society, provided that the disabled are employed and feel integrated into the social fabric of our society. Together with the other strains and threads of our
society, they can be woven in to make the social landscape beautiful and beneficial to all. Let the inclusion of people with disabilities—treating them as equal with honor and dignity—start at home first. Let it then spread to our family members and friends. Our community, social and corporate cultures will embrace it once we walk on the path of starting this journey.
Mohammed Yousuf is the Founder President, EquallyAble Foundation. He is a disability activist and researcher and can be reached at [email protected].