Spain honoured for promoting rights of disabled

September 13, 2013 - Queen Sofia of Spain has accepted an award to her country for adopting laws to include people with disabilities in all aspects of society, from education and jobs to public life. She called the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Rights Award ``a stimulus to keep moving ahead toward a society with equal opportunity for all.'' The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice and the Roosevelt Institute presented the award to Spain at a ceremony at United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday. In a message, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Spain for taking major steps to implement the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted seven years ago. ``However, for too many persons with disabilities, stigma, discrimination and exclusion remain a fact of everyday life,'' Ban said.