On June 12, 2018, U.S. Board Member Judith Heumann delivered the following statement for Humanity & Inclusion at the 11th Meeting of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York.
President, ladies, and gentlemen, it is pleasure to address this audience today on behalf of Humanity & Inclusion.
After 35 years, Handicap International’s global network changed its name in January to Humanity & Inclusion – a name that better reflects the diversity of our mandate. The values represented by our new name translate into actions guided by a people-centered approach. Humanity & Inclusion supports the effortsof people with disabilities, their representative organizations and other civil society groups, service providers and at times States to realize the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities towards fully inclusive societies.
While some progress has been made, men and women, girls and boys with disabilities and other persons facing situations of risk and discrimination, are still too often sidelined or ignored in development and emergency situations. Too often, they are not empowered to play a key role in the global, collaborative effort to achieve the sustainable development goals and to ensure their participation, safety and protection when emergencies strike close to home.
Humanity & Inclusion plays an active role in contributing to the goal of “leaving no-one behind” in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, in Disaster Risk Reduction and the Agenda for Humanity, at international and national levels, through programming in 60 countries, by providing technical expertise and advocating for inclusive development, DRR and humanitarian action. As such, we support the implementation of the CRPD.
It’s my pleasure to report that we’ll be sharing the results of key projects that contribute to this common agenda.
- Humanity & Inclusion is pursuing efforts alongside women with disabilities to tackle violence and discrimination against them with its Making It Work Gender and Disability project. This week, we are releasing a new report called, “Gender and disability intersectionality in practice: Women and girls with disabilities addressing discrimination and violence in Africa”.
- HI is part of an important project on improving disability inclusion in data and statistics, in collaboration with the Washington Group members in development and humanitarian action, and SDG Monitoring processes.
- HI’s inclusive political participation projects are empowering affected populations, and gathering evidence for accountability.
On top of that, Humanity & Inclusion is actively contributing to supporting humanitarian action that is inclusive of persons with disabilities. We do this at the field level through a number of projects, supported by countries including Australia, Germany, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom; and also at global level, including through a consortium with the International Disability Alliance and CBM.
For example, HI is co-chairing the IASC Task Team together with International Disability Alliance and UNICEF, developing global guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, and supporting advocacy efforts around CRPD Article 11 on situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies, and the Charter on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action.
On a final note, Humanity & Inclusion would like to salute the election of Ana Peláez as the first woman with a disability to serve on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. We would also like to support the equal representation of men and women with disabilities on the CRPD Committee.
Thank you.
-ENDS-
