3 DECEMBER 2009
Empowering persons with disabilities around the world

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities – observed each year on 3 December – is an opportunity to promote full and equal enjoyment of human rights and participation in society by persons with disabilities. The
theme for the 2009 observance is ‘empowerment’, a particularly salient theme given that the UK ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities earlier this year.

Globally, almost one in ten people is a person living with a disability and recent studies indicate that persons with disabilities constitute up to 20 per cent of the population living in poverty in developing countries. Many persons with disabilities continue to face barriers to their participation in their communities and are often forced to live on the margins of society.  They often face stigma and discrimination and are routinely denied basic rights such as food, education, employment, access to health and reproductive health services. 

Ensuring that persons with disabilities are integrated into all development activities is essential in order to achieve internationally agreed development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Currently, there are no references to persons with disabilities either in the MDGs themselves or in the accompanying body of guidelines and policies, programmes and conferences that are part of the on-going MDG efforts.  In addition, the new revisions of the MDGs currently in process do not include persons with disabilities.

Click here to read UN Enable recommendations on mainstreaming disability in MDG policies and processes

Click here to read about UNA-UK's advocacy of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities