MESSENGER OF PEACE

U.N. Celebrates International Day of PWD

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By Emily Keller

Disability rights groups from all over the world celebrated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities at the United Nations, Dec. 3rd

The 2009 theme was the inclusion of people with disabilities in the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to reduce extreme poverty, child mortality and AIDS by 2015. The day’s events included a panel discussion of the theme, a disability film festival and the appointment of musician, singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder as a U.N. Messenger of Peace.

Wonder, who is blind, is the 11th member of the group whose mission is to raise awareness of U.N. work and goals. U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon praised Wonder.

“I recognize that he has consistently used his voice and special relationship with the public to create a better and more inclusive world, to defend civil and human rights and to improve the lives of those less fortunate,” he said. “Stevie Wonder is a true inspiration to young people all over the world about what can be achieved despite any physical limitations.”

Panelists included representatives of the World Health Organization, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the U.N. missions to Tanzania and the Philippines. Venus Ilagan, secretary general of Rehabilitation International, chaired the panel.

Navanethem Pillay, the U.N.’s high commissioner for Human Rights, explained the importance of inclusion by saying that achieving the MDG’s goal to establish universal primary education will require actions to “overcome the cultural, social and accessibility barriers that keep 98 percent of children with disabilities in developing countries out of school.”

The U.N.’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the World Bank organized the annual event, which the U.N. established in 1982.

In the afternoon, Matthew Sapolin, commissioner of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office for People with Disabilities, addressed attendees with his predecessor, Mark Leeds.

Sapolin cited achievements within the past eight years, including the advancement of people with disabilities in film, theater and broadcasting. He said economic empowerment is the key to further progress.

“People with disabilities must gain economic empowerment if we are to have any power in our suggestions at all. As we get our hands on the money, trust me, the market will start to turn around and give us what we need,” said Sapolin.

He pointed out that companies are already marketing products to people with disabilities, including computers and phones with audio and speaking functions built-in.

Sapolin also called on the disability and senior communities to unite their empowerment efforts in order to increase their voting power. “It is the voting voice and the spending voice that effects change,” he said.

Leeds, an attorney for the New York State Bar Association, discussed his efforts to raise awareness about the variety of laws that promote equal rights for people with disabilities, saying the Americans with Disabilities Act is “not the only game in town.” He announced the release of a Bar Association continuing legal education course program book that covers disability laws by topic.

Films shown in the festival included “Beyond the Light,” a UNITED NATIONS work by Ivy Goulart about six people in Brazil who are visually impaired, and “Rudely Interrupted,” a documentary about an Australian rock band whose members have disabilities.

The event comes five months after the United States’ signing of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a human rights treaty that provides an international enforcement mechanism for equal rights laws supporting adults and children with disabilities.