Disability and Development NGOs call on EU and Member States to respect the terms of the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in their development policies.

The vast majority - 80% - of the 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide live in developing countries. Disabled persons are disproportionately represented amongst the poorest persons in the world. 20% of the world’s poorest people are disabled. Light for the World and CBM called for attention to be given to this often forgotten development issue at the first European Conference on the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities held in Brussels on 20-21 November 2006.

Over 20-21 November, a unique gathering of key decision makers and experts from the United Nations, the OHCHR, EU Member State Government officials, the EU institutions, the World Bank, disability NGOs (DPOs) and development NGOs, from the North and the South came together in Brussels. They met to reflect, for the first time, on how to go forward with implementation of new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in way which will positively impact on the lives of persons with disabilities in developing countries.
Over these two days the Conference developed recommendations and formulated a strategy to promote the UN Convention and its role in advancing inclusive development cooperation in the policies and operations of the EU member states.

Among the key note speakers were Koos Richelle (European Commission Director General of Europe Aid) , Ambassador S. T. K. Katenta Apuli (Ambassador of Uganda), Richard Howitt MEP (Vice Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Human Rights) and Shuaib Chaulken (CEO of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities).

The Conference participants concluded that all future spending and policies by, and of, the EU and the EU member states must fully respect the terms of the UN Convention - notably the International Cooperation Article 32 of the Convention; that mechanisms and communication tools must be developed to promote and draw attention to the rights provided by the new UN Convention; and that greater funding support is urgently needed for capacity building of disability organizations (DPOs) in developing countries in accordance with a DPO demand-led approach from the South. The Conference highlighted the need for broad based cooperation between all actors around the world in promoting and monitoring the signature, ratification and implementation of the Convention, and the key and pivotal role that DPOs must play in this regard.

The new UN Convention will positively impact on the lives of persons with disabilities in developing countries. Like Brigida from Bolivia.

Shuaib Chalklen emphasized the need to focus efforts on disability inclusion across existing priorities of African Governments and he called for support from EU Governments and NGOs in this effort particularly now at this crucial time with the dawning of a new international Convention on disability rights.

Koos Richelle stated the intention of EuropeAid to provide more financing opportunities to disability related projects. He said that the Commission were presently discussing the possibility of the EC directly supporting civil society actors in the South which could pave the way towards DPOs in the South receiving direct support from the Commission. He also agreed to look into concrete proposals to reinforce human resource capacity on disability within the Commission in respect to disability and development cooperation.

Johannes Trimmel, Chair of the International Disability and Development Consortium said the time was right, in the context of the new EU Financing Instrument on Development Cooperation, to ensure that this EU funding was applied with full respect to the principles of inclusive development and disability inclusion, with particular attention to social services support to developing countries.

Kalle Konkkola, Chair of the two day Event, called on all participants and stakeholders to concentrate their energies over the next weeks and months on the campaign for Member State signatures and ratification of the Convention. He gave a general call on the need to spread the word about the existence of this new historic Treaty, a legally binding instrument, which will empower people with disabilities in the poorest communities across the world.

Press contact: Isabelle Wahedova, Project Coordinator, tel.: +32 2 275 09 92, fax.:+322 275 0093 email: isabelle.wahedova@light-for-the-world.net, www.make-development-inclusive.org

This Conference was organised by CBM (Germany) and LIGHT FOR THE WORLD (Austria), and is part of the IDDC project ‘Breaking the cycle of poverty and disability in Development Cooperation’ - Disability Mainstreaming in Development Cooperation - supported by DG Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission, and implemented in partnership with AIFO (Italy), Handicap International (France, Luxembourg), DCDD (Netherlands), eRko (Slovakia), Healthlink (UK), PHOS (Belgium), SHIA (Sweden), DPI (Italia), Groupement Français des Personnes Handicapées (France), National Disability Council of the Netherlands (Netherlands).