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Welcome Address : A Europe for All
Poverty and Intellectual Disability Dear Friends I have to begin by telling you how much I regret not being able to attend this meeting with you here in Bucharest. In spite of my commitment to attend the meetings of the international disability organizations and the IDA members, I still have not been able to achieve the impossible: to be in two places at the same time. However, I would not miss the opportunity to send you a brief welcome note and share with you my thoughts about on the issues you will be discussing. I also hope that you will send me the results of your deliberations and your discussions. Poverty, intellectual disabilities, children with disabilities are all among my priorities which I identified early on in my mandate. Social inclusion for persons with disabilities constitutes the backbone of my advocacy. However, it is clear that we cannot advocate social inclusion when, at the international level, persons with disabilities are not included on the social development agenda. Therefore, I believe your conference will bring up some vital and significant points when it comes of the neglect of persons with disabilities in the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals. If over 600 million people remain outside the development circle; ——it is not clear to me how the international community proposes to reach its poverty reduction, educational inclusion and health, nutrition and sanitation goals without including the issues of persons with disabilities on their agendas. Over the summer months and into early September, I concentrated my efforts on lobbying ambassadors, foreign ministers and heads of state, as well as the President of the General Assembly, in advance of the UN Summit on September 14 & 15, 2005, to include the issues of persons with disabilities in their speeches, their deliberations, their target areas and in the final document. The efforts paid off, as disabilities was added in two paragraphs of the document (107 & 108) (2) under the heading “Human Rights”. But such mentions are not enough. We need to ensure that it followed up with concrete commitments, targets, and financial and human resources attached to them. Once that is done then our role becomes one of monitoring and evaluating these actions to ensure their continuity and their effectiveness. It is disappointing that today, 57 years after the adoption of the Universal Human Rights Declaration—a groundbreaking and enduring document—we still have not reached a state where equal rights and human rights apply to all—including persons with disabilities. Therefore, our struggle, continues. My own struggle is guided by the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. Another of the United Nations’ great instruments for guaranteeing equality and ensuring persons with disabilities receive the necessary services to allow them full participation in society on an equal basis with other persons. When we speak of full participation we are essentially speaking of inclusion. When we work towards achieving equalization of opportunities, then we are working towards inclusion. And when we demand equality in rights, in education, in access, in health, in services, in social life, in opportunities, in responsibilities, in obligations we are also demanding inclusion in everything that makes for a productive and dignified life. Inclusion for me is the closest theme to equalization. In its broadest sense, it implies a vision of an inclusive societycapable of integrating all its members and able to absorb and make use of their diversity. This, naturally, brings me to the issues relating with children and adults with intellectual disabilities. When we talk about exclusion, it is particularly relevant to persons with intellectuals disabilities who seem to be excluded, not only from society at large, but to a certain extent from the disability community itself. Robert Martin, a member of Inclusion International, has spoken very clearly and very eloquently about this aspects on the many occasions when we have attended the same meetings. Robert has pointed out that in gatherings of hundreds, at which every disability is represented by dozens of persons with disabilities, he is often the only person with an intellectual disability. Among the excluded, they are the most excluded and among the poorest of the poor, they are the poorest. Along with their own exclusion comes the exclusion of their families. The burden of caring for a child with an intellectual or development disability often falls to the family alone. This often means that caretakers are unable to engage in gainful employment, let alone have time for recreational or social activities. This is a major contributing factor to the poverty in which people with intellectual disabilities live in. Families with an intellectually disabled child are also ostracized by their community, adding to their exclusion. In many countries, not only are persons with intellectual disabilities denied the right to family and loving relationships, their siblings are also deemed unmarriageable for fear their own children would have the same disability. More than any other disability, persons with intellectual disabilities are denied their civil, cultural and political rights. They are barely allowed a say in their own affairs or to make decisions about their own lives, and are denied legal capacity. They have no right to vote, to sign their name to a legal document, to claim an inheritance… and the list goes on. They, along with people with psycho-social disabilities, are considered different from other human beings, even other persons with disabilities. Often they are forced to endure long years of incarceration institutions against their will. They are also sometimes forced to endure painful, humiliating and often invasive medical treatment. There are others, and this is a very common occurrence in the region I come from, who spend their lives in the backrooms of their family homes, deprived of the love of a family and forgotten until it is time for their next meal. In small communities, where the stigma of having an intellectually disabled child could be socially damaging, even the closest neighbours are unaware of the existence of the intellectually disabled member for the duration of their existence. Thinking of the exclusion and discrimination, the cruel and inhumane treatment, the deprivation and poverty that persons with disabilities, and particularly intellectual disabilities, suffer from—I have to wonder why it took three months of intensive lobbying at the highest levels, for disability issues to receive two mentions in two paragraphs of a document that commits world leaders and governments to eradicating these conditions. This can only mean that the road ahead of us is still long. However, there are many points of optimism. One is that Inclusion International is holding its conference on intellectual disabilities here in Romania. Only a couple of decades ago children with intellectual disabilities suffered maltreatment, violence in their home, institutional abuse, and incarceration in the most appalling conditions. For a few years now, Romania has been working seriously towards the inclusion of persons intellectual disabilities in education and employment. Another point of optimism is the Convention for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. Only a few years ago the United Nations was still resisting the idea of a Convention. Now, we are very close to having the Convention finalized and readied for ratification. Moreover, the very process of drafting this Convention has given to the voices of those who have been voiceless for centuries: people with disabilities have been active participants in engineering the documents that will become their legal recourse and their protection. Poverty remains one of our greatest challenges. And we need to keep hammering the point across at every occasion: when almost 600 million people live in conditions that are below the standards of other citizens regardless of the wealth and development enjoyed by the country they live in, development has not succeeded. The lack of awareness is also a major challenge. Awareness needs to be raised at all levels: starting with family and moving up to policy makers and government officials. We need to raise awareness of education and health care professionals who often believe that time and resources spent on educating and treating persons with intellectual disabilities are sound investments. We need to raise awareness within the disability movement regarding the marginalization of persons with intellectual disabilities and ensure that the movement, in its diversity and openness, its philosophy of equality and democracy, does not overlook the voices of its weakest members. Through meetings such as these, and the research being initiated by Inclusion International on Poverty and Intellectual Disability, through constant and vigilant monitoring of the Standard Rules, and full support for the Convention and its implementation, we will continue to change attitudes and improve the lives of children and persons with intellectual and other kinds of disabilities. I thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with you and I wish you the very best in your deliberations.
Hissa Al Thani (1) Disability World Social Development /Gender /Disabilities - Mon Jan 19 2004 http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1602.html
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