UN, disability advocates to work together to tackle inequality

The United Nations is scheduled to convene a conference next week focusing on efforts to make sure that people with disabilities are included in global campaign to end poverty and inequality, said officials here Friday.

The Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is held annually and will take place on June 9-11 this year, is the world's largest and most diverse meeting for the purpose.

Participants will include representatives from the 154 countries -- including China -- that are party to the convention, which is one of seven UN human rights conventions.

Daniela Bas, director of the UN Division for Social Policy and Development, told reporters here that a lot has changed since the International Year for Disabled Persons in 1981.

"The terminology from handicapped became disabled person. Nowadays we say person with disabilities. The focus is on the person," Bas said. "I would like as an outcome of this conference that we leave the 'dis' somewhere else and we focus on the ability. "

Javed Abidi, the global chair of Disabled People International, said that more needs to be done to help the one billion people worldwide with disabilities. In particular, he said that people with disabilities are over-represented -- as one in five -- of the world's poorest people.

Abidi said that the slogan "leave nobody behind" was widely used at the United Nations but that if it is to be truly achieved then disability must be included in the poverty eradication goal of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is expected to be adopted in September to pave the way for the world' s sustainable development for the next 15 years.

"We cannot eradicate poverty without addressing disability directly by name," Abidi said.

Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, special rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, said that another aim of the conference was to change the perception of people with disabilities from subjects of charity and medical attention to active participants in the community.

The conference will also address the vulnerability and exclusion of people with disabilities, access to education for children with disabilities, and ways to ensure disabilities are considered in responses to disasters and humanitarian crises. Endite