According to UNDP in Viet Nam, on 24 September, world leaders met at the UN High-level Meeting on Disability and Development. Viet Nam had one representative attending.
The purpose of this meeting was to consider and adopt a resolution calling for development that benefits people with disabilities – creating opportunities for people with disabilities to have full and productive employment, decent work and access to basic social services.
The meeting was attended by more than 800 representatives of organisations of people with disabilities.
An estimated 15% of the world’s population are people with disabilities, 80% of whom live in developing countries. However, according to UNDP, the rights of people with disabilities around the world “have not yet been fully translated into the participation of people with disabilities in the internationally agreed development goals”.
The document issued at the meeting stressed the importance of ensuring access and participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of development, and the need to give due attention to all people with disabilities in the UN development agenda for the post-2015 period.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once said: “A world that recognises the rights of people with disabilities, ensures that people with disabilities can be useful members of their communities and nations, and creates an accessible and inclusive environment for all, will be a world that benefits all of us – people with disabilities as well as people without disabilities”.
The United Nations encourages the international community “to seize every opportunity to bring disability issues” into the global development agenda and to give due attention to disability in the UN post-2015 development agenda.
Nguyen Phuong Anh, who is known as “The glass-bone girl”, representing people with disabilities in Viet Nam, will take part in United Nations activities in New York.
An Nhien – http://baodientu.chinhphu.vn