"Including Persons with disabilities in the Sustainable Development Process" Statement by H.E Ambassador Mr. Michel Spinellis

Opening Remarks

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Please allow me, at the outset, to express my sincere appreciation for your attendance to this side event. The European Union Delegation, The International Disability Alliance, the International Disability and Development Consortium and the Permanent Mission of Greece are organizing this event in order to highlight the importance of a disability inclusive development and to exchange views with relevant stakeholders in order to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities will be included in the post-2015 agenda.
As the international community is further engaging in the post-2015 development process, it is now time to review what has been achieved over the last decades and create a framework for the sustainable development goals. The Rio+20 Conference played a crucial role in renewing the international community’s commitment to sustainable development, as well as to reaffirm the importance of its three dimensions: economic, social and environmental. A cross-cutting theme of the Conference was the issue of disability and the need to create a disability-inclusive approach to development.
Today, over a billion people, worldwide, are living with disabilities, and we believe it is important to ensure their inclusion to development-related policies, given that the advancement of the rights of persons with disabilities is deeply associated with the principles of the United Nations. In this regard, the Secretary-General reaffirmed the commitment of the UN for a disability-inclusive and sustainable growth.
In 2006, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which “recognized that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”.
The adoption of the CRPD created the basis for action since the international community acknowledged the urgency and importance of inclusive development as well as the broad spectrum of challenges that persons with disabilities face.
Since its adoption, disability has become a major theme in the agenda of the international community. However additional measures must be taken in order to guarantee that the commitment of the international community for a disability-inclusive development agenda will be translated into further action.
In the light of the above, the United Nations System, as well as Member States, must stay engaged to the inclusion of disability as a crosscutting issue in the global development agenda, attributing to it due consideration in the emerging post-2015 agenda and the development of the Sustainable Development Goals, through various parallel ongoing processes.
Furthermore, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) must also give due consideration to the issue of disability and development, within the framework of UN operational activities, in order to enhance awareness and cooperation at all levels.
Let me now give the floor to Assistant Secretary General Mr. I. Simonovic and let him present us the human rights aspect of this topic. Ivan, the floor is yours.

Concluding Remarks
Distinguished Colleagues, delegates, ladies and gentleman
I should now like to make some concluding remarks and also thank the participants Mr. Ivan Simonovic, Mr. Yannis Vardakastanis and Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting for the useful input you provided today as well as the constructive engagement of the civil society.
It became clear to all of us today that the full enjoyment of human rights to all is of pivotal importance and to this regard the issue of disability must be an integral part of the post-2015 development agenda and during the next year and a half we should step up our efforts to make sure we will achieve this goal.
When designing the post-2015 development agenda, persons with disabilities must not be forgotten. The international community must make sure that it will give strong emphasis to the principle of equality of opportunity for persons with disabilities, as well as ensure that the most marginalized groups will be considered as a top priority. It is widely know that a strong bidirectional link exists between disability and poverty. Recent data underscores the fact that certain social groups of people with disabilities such as women, children, indigenous populations or older people especially in developing countries are in an extremely vulnerable position which most of the times excludes them from education, employment and many other opportunities for a better livelihood.
Furthermore an important step is to continue and reinforce further the battle against the phenomenon of discrimination which constitutes one of the main challenges that people with disabilities face in economic, social and political level.
Let me conclude by repeating that, by adding disability in the post-2015 development agenda we will succeed in mainstreaming disability and create an ideal opportunity to consolidate disability-related activities, and to develop policies that will ensure the equal participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of development in international level.