December 2011: Defending Human Rights for everyone,

everywhere, again and again

On December 2, 2011, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon made an impassioned appeal to governments, civil society and the entire international community to engage everyone to "work for and alongside people disabilities to engage humanity in inclusive development, sustainable and equitable for all."

He adds that "People with disabilities should be involved in all stages of the development process, from project design to evaluation."

In this association between the disability movement and civil society, DPI and its members are calling for, and are ready to be engaged in all aspects of this work. We have an insight and knowledge, from our everyday experiences that could contribute to the development of our communities and to celebrate the diversities within them. From this the expertise of the end user should flow an enrichment of those societies in which the diversity is celebrated, not feared.

It is essential to properly engage disabled people within the development of such assessment tools and toolkits and when this engagement is analysed, questions such as the experience of disabled people within the project, what payments they received and at what level of management of the projects, need to be fully explained. It would also be useful if the analysis showed what partnerships with Disabled Peoples Organisations were formed.

To defend Human Rights is to hear and value those who are excluded. It is in this global quest that committed defenders of Human Rights, such as DPI, will bring with them in this collective challenge.

Learning to live with a disability requires much strength we try, fall, get up, overcome, avoid, substitute, compensate ... So many opportunities to enrich the society and will bring knowledge that will lead to "an inclusive development, sustainable and equitable society for all."

Jean-Luc Simon

December 08th 2011

8 déc. 2011