International Day for Persons with Disabilities 2011

The Thirtieth Anniversary of the International Year of Disabled Persons, Equality and full participation

- Together for a better world for all: includingpersons with disabilities in development -

Panel Two

Mainstreaming disability in the global development agenda: experience in other development issues

2 December 2011, Conference Room 2

UN Headquarter, New York

Information Note

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981, as proclaimed by the General Assembly resolution 31/123. The Year, which focused on "full participation and equality", gave rise to the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons (1982-1993), which promoted equality and full participation of persons with disabilities as agents and beneficiaries of society and development.

In the course of the three decades since the International Year, the international community has adoptedthe World Programme of Action for Disabled Persons(1982), the Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Disabled Persons (1993) and the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). These instruments, together with other human rights and development norms standards, provide a comprehensive frameworkfor national policy-making and legislation to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human and fundamental freedom by all persons with disabilities.

With a view to promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the global development agenda, the General Assembly has, over the last three years, regularlycalled for action to promote the realization of theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other internationally agreed development goals forpersons with disabilities.[1]As the deadline for the MDGs draws nearer, there is an opportunity to ensure disability is explicitly included in any emerging post-2015 development framework. A planned high-level meeting on disability and development in 2013 will provide a significant opportunity to pursue this goal further.

In his reports to the General Assembly and the Commission on Social Development, the Secretary-General has highlighted the paucity of data on the situation of persons with disabilities, concluding that this lack of information hinders themainstreaming of disability in the global development agenda. There is, therefore, an urgent need to improve the collection and analysis of data and statistics on disability. It is also crucial that management and reporting of existing data on disability be improved in order to maximise the utility of data gathered and to monitor and evaluate the progress made for persons with disabilities both in the context of the implementation of the disability-instruments and in terms of internationally agreed development goals.

In this respect, experience gained in other development issues in the context reporting can provide valuable lessons for mainstreaming disability in development.This panel will be one of the first in a series of events organized to provide inputs for the proposedHigh-level Meeting at the 67th session of the General Assembly.

Panel on “Mainstreaming disability in the development agenda: experience in other development issues”

This panel will focus on the experience in mainstreaming of other issues in the development agenda and look at the conceptual frameworks, methodologies, approaches and data sources utilized by the United Nations system in the preparation ofglobal development reports. The panel will also explore how disability can be integrated into the United Nations’ existing global reports on development and consideroptions for a global report on disability.

For inquiries related to this panel discussion, please contact Ms. Akiko Ito UNDESA

(, Phone: 212-963-1996).

Panellists

  • Moderator: Ms. Daniela Bas, Director, Division for Social Policy and Development, DESA
  • Ms. Akiko Ito, Chief, Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities/DSPD/DESA
  • Ms. Jennifer Madans, Washington Group on Disability Statistics
  • Ms. Rosangela Berman Bieler, UNICEF
  • Ms. Paola Pagliani, UNDP
  • Dr. Jacob Kumaresan, WHO

1

[1]See resolutions 63/150, 64/131 and 65/186