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Inclusion matters: access and empowerment for people of all abilities

Commemoration event on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

 

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) has been commemorated since 1992 to promote awareness and mobilize support for critical issues relating to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in society and development.

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International Day of Persons with Disabilities

UNESCO’s aim is to promote inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities in education, science, culture and communication and information. As one of the UN system organizations, UNESCO contributes to the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) and Sustainable Development Agenda within the areas of its competence. Concrete efforts are placed to ensure that women and men with disabilities are integrated fully into every aspect of social, political and economic life. It is done in order to create a world which is truly inclusive, pluralistic, open, participatory and knowledge-based.

Of the global population of persons with disabilities, 80% of them live in developing countries. One third of all out-of-school children have disabilities, and fewer than 2% of children with disabilities in developing countries are in school.

These are shocking figures. Events such as this Day hope to raise awareness of this injustice in our world and to mobilize us to make a change in access of persons with disabilities to education, information, employment, health care and other spheres of life.

UNESCO is working to ensure that all persons with disabilities have access to new Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) that allow them access to information and knowledge and that they can benefit from this technological age.

The power of technological and scientific progress for inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities have been acknowledged in the UNESCO Outcome Document – The New Delhi Declaration on Inclusive ICTs for Persons with Disabilities: Making Empowerment a Reality in 2015 by UNESCO’s Executive Board.

Agenda

Venue: UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Room I.

8:30 - 9:45

Moderator :
  • Mr Indrajit Banerjee, Director, Knowledge Societies Division, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO

10:00 - 11:00

  • Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
  • Lenin Moreno, United Nations Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility and Former Vice President of Ecuador, Ecuador
  • Ségolène Neuville, French Junior Minister for Disabled People and the Fight Against Exclusion, attached to the French Minister of Social Affairs, Health and Women’s Rights, France
Chair :
  • Mr Andrew Taussig, Former Trustee, The International Institute of Communications, UK

11:00 - 13:00

  • Rachel Kachaje, Former Minister of Disability and Elderly Affairs and Chairperson Disabled Women in Africa, Malawi
  • Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the Nippon Foundation and World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Japan
  • Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Chile
  • Antonio Carlos Munhoz, Assistant-Secretary for the Persons with Disabilities and Reduced Mobility at Municipality of Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Natalia Vodianova, Founder, Naked Heart Foundation, Russian Federation
Chair :
  • Mr Viswa Sadasivan, Chief Executive Officer, Strategic Moves PTE LTD, Singapore

14:30 - 16:00

  • Armoogum Parsuramen, G.O.S.K, Founder – President, Global Rainbow Foundation (GRF), University of 3rd Age (U3AM) and Former Minister of Education, Arts, Culture and Science, Mauritius
  • Neema Namadamu, Director, Media Training Center for Women, Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, Inaugural Chairperson and Current Member of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Committee (OHCHR), Jordan
  • Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, Director, Earthsavers DREAMS ensemble, UNESCO Artists for Peace, The Philippines
Chair :
  • Mr Armoogum Parsuramen, G.O.S.K, Founder – President, Global Rainbow Foundation (GRF), University of 3rd Age (U3AM) and Former Minister of Education, Arts, Culture and Science, Mauritius

16:00 - 16:30

  • Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, French Writer and Knight of the Legion of Honor, France to be introduced by Mr Edouard Braine, President of Association Santiago Accessible, France
  • Satish Kapoor, Founder and Director of Brotherhood and WE CARE FilmFest, India
5-10 short duration films

16:30 - 17:30

Mr Carl Størmer, CEO, JazzCode AS, Norway

17:30 - 17:35

  • Indrajit Banerjee, Director, Knowledge Societies Division, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO