International Day of Disabled Persons

(December 03.2011) The United Nation’s chief has called on governments, civil society and the global community to work for and alongside persons with disabilities to achieve sustainable and equitable development worldwide. UN Secretary General, Ban ki Moon made this appeal in a message on the World Day of he disables.. It is thirty years since the United Nations first observed the International Year of Disabled Persons under the theme “Full Participation and Equality”. During that period, there has been significant progress in raising awareness about the rights of persons with disabilities and in strengthening the international normative framework to realize those rights – from the World Programme of Action (1982) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006).. This year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities reminds us that development can only be sustainable when it is equitable, inclusive and accessible for all. Persons with disabilities need therefore to be included at all stages of development processes, from inception to monitoring and evaluation.