650 Million Persons with Disabilities Worldwide

Today, there are at least 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide. Eighty percent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries, with 14,000 residing here in Barbados. The majority of persons with disabilities live on the margins of society, in conditions of poverty, and have limited access to social services.

It is therefore critical to broaden the focus of the development agenda at the national, regional and international levels to include and integrate the rights, well-being and perspective of persons with disabilities, without which the internationally agreed development goals, in particular the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), will not be genuinely achieved.

The eight MDGs Millennium Development Goals seek to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities offers a global framework to guide countries in fulfilling their obligations to promote, protect, and ensure the rights of persons with disabilities and promote respect for their inherent dignity. The Convention marks a “paradigm shift” in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It decidedly moves away from viewing persons with disabilities as “objects” of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as “subjects” with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent, as well as being active members of society. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and identifies areas where adaptations must be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and where protection of rights must be reinforced.

The Convention is a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. Barbados was an early signatory to the Convention, which has also been signed by 6 other Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago).

To ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, Barbados and the other countries in the Caribbean will need to promote and strengthen national capacities for participatory, democratic and accountable processes and mechanisms that further the equalization of opportunities for the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in civil, political, economic, social and cultural life. At the same time, monitoring systems need to be put in place to push and measure progress in achieving these objectives.

The Fully Accessible Barbados (FAB) initiative was launched in 2005 by the Barbados Council for the Disabled (BCD). FAB, along with other initiatives being undertaken by the Ministry of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment, Urban and Rural Development, seeks to mainstream differently-abled persons and promote an inclusive society. The United Nations System for Barbados and the OECS is pleased to support this important initiative of the BCD as an important step towards inclusive growth and development, and recognize the many public and private sector entities who have made a conscientious effort to make their facilities and services fully accessible for all persons.

The United Nations looks toward our continued partnership with governments, the private sector, and other development actors across the Eastern Caribbean, including the BCD, to deepen our investments in ensuring an adequate standard of living and social protection for persons with disabilities, including through equal access to poverty and hunger eradication programmes, inclusive quality education, as well as the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care in order to ensure the highest attainable standard of health for persons with disabilities, without discrimination on the basis of disability, and access to full and productive employment and decent work for all.

As we approach the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December 2009, which will be commemorated with the theme “Realizing the MDGs for All: Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Their Communities around the World”, we look forward to important progress here in Barbados and across the Caribbean region in achieving the commitments assumed under the Convention and the MDGs.

Statement from the UN Resident Coordinator, Michelle Gyles-McDonnough