Fulfilling the rights of persons with disabilities in the poorest communities

Grace (left) enjoying lessons at CBM partner 'Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania' (CCBRT), Moshi, Tanzania.

On 5th October 2011 the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) discussed the draft report on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in developing countries. The report stresses the importance of including and promoting the rights of persons with disability in development policies and programmes.

On March the 16th 2011 the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) appointed two co-rapporteurs – MEP Catherine Bearder and Musikari Kombo (Kenyan MP) – to draft a report on the inclusion of people with disability living in developing countries.

This underlines once more the commitment of the European Union and its ACP partners to work towards the promotion and inclusion of people with disability in their programmes and policies.

The report was submitted for motion for a resolution during the JPA Committee on October the 5th, Brussels.

The two co-rapporteurs have closely cooperated with cbm, which has provided expertise and experience.

The report stresses the importance of promoting and including people with disability in all aspects of life, while trying to break the barriers that hinder their participation. This is even more true in poor countries where fewer resources and negative cultural attitudes towards persons with disabilities contribute to exclude them from education, health care programmes and information, employment, political life and cultural activities.

“It is essential that people with disability are included in health programmes to prevent diseases like HIV/Aids that have a lot of disabling effects. Also, to tackle the circle of poverty and disability, it is important to strengthen the exchange of information and data between developed and developing countries”, said Celia Cranfield on behalf of the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC).

The report will be adopted in November during the plenary session of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Lomé, Togo.

cbm's objective is to make sure that follow-up actions and monitoring mechanisms will be put in place, so that this report will represent a tool to raise awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities, change negative attitudes towards them, increase their participation and include their needs in all policies and programmes.