Annual UN review focuses on youth with disabilities, advancing inclusive development

Hundreds of activists and Government delegates gathered at United Nations Headquarters today to identify practical ways to take the rights, needs and concerns of persons with disabilities, particularly youth, into consideration as they strive to advance inclusive, sustainable development.

“As the international community discusses a universal post-2015 development agenda, we need to make sure that the new framework will not leave the one billion persons with disabilities behind,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message to the seventh session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Persons with disabilities worldwide face physical, social, economic and attitudinal barriers that prevent them from effectively participating in society. They are also disproportionately represented among the world’s poorest, and lack equal access to basic resources such as education, employment, healthcare and legal support systems.

The three-day meeting will review implementation of the Convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006, with a special focus on youth with disabilities, as well as the development agenda that Member States are currently designing as a successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Equal access is the key to participation. Yet there are still many barriers and inequalities facing persons with disabilities,” Mr. Ban noted in his message, which was delivered by Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo.

“A lack of access to education, employment, health care and other forms of support prevents many youth with disabilities from realizing their full potential and fully contributing to the development of their society,” he stated, adding that discrimination and exclusion remain pervasive in all societies.

“In many parts of the world, urban and rural development policies and programmes still do not take full account of accessibility as a worthy investment for the wider participation of people with different functional needs.”

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