New York – As more than 1,000 disability leaders and advocates gather at the United Nations to review progress on implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced today that the UN itself was taking additional steps to raise the Organization’s own performance on disability inclusion.
The new United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy includes a system-wide policy and accountability framework, as well as other implementation modalities that prioritize the rights of persons with disabilities in every aspect of the UN’s work. It will raise the standards of the UN’s efforts on disability inclusion across the UN System and bring about unified and transformative change. Moreover, the Strategy’s accountability framework will monitor progress and make sure that the UN addresses existing challenges and gaps, including through common-system indicators.
In announcing the new disability inclusion strategy, the Secretary-General said, “Disability inclusion is central to the promise of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. Together, with persons with disabilities as agents of change, we can build an inclusive, accessible and sustainable world.”
Disability leaders have said that more needs to be done to mainstream the disability perspective in legislation, policies and national strategies and are calling on the global community to deliver on the promise of the Convention. The Convention, adopted in 2006, protects and ensures the rights of some one billion people around the world. The new Strategy is a major component in fulfilling the UN’s promise of leaving no one behind and in achieving the sustainable development agenda.
