One billion persons have a disability worldwide, but meaningful inclusion remains a challenge.

In this Q&A, Ruby Holmes, an inclusive governance global specialist for Humanity & Inclusion, expands on the organization’s commitments ahead of the Global Disability Summit, which will be held virtually Feb. 15-17.

What is the Global Disability Summit?  

The Global Disability Summit (GDS) is the second summit of its kind. The first one brought stakeholders from different governments, civil society organizations, the UN and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) together in 2018, to discuss disability inclusion and inclusive development.

Disability inclusion is a key topic: about 1 billion persons, that is 15% of the global population, have a disability – and this is only an estimate due to lacking global disability data. Persons with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world.

Because of a lack of awareness amongst governments and service providers, persons with disabilities face many barriers, such as accessibility factors. However, one of the main barriers is attitudinal, as they face a lot of stigma and discrimination. One of the major challenges today is awareness raising, to show that persons with disabilities have equal rights and must have access to services just like everybody else.

Why is the GDS a key moment for inclusion and disability rights?

The GDS is important because of the momentum that the disability rights movement is gaining globally. We really want to keep those conversations, those partnerships going. It is also extremely important to hold stakeholders accountable to implement their commitments and ensure they are including persons with disabilities and OPDs in all of their programs, policies and initiatives.

A report by the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities found that between 2014 and 2018, less than 2% of international aid was disability relevant. So international stakeholders must really continue to support funding, providing more direct support to OPDs and pay them for their expertise.

What are HI’s commitments for the GDS?

Inclusive health, inclusive education and inclusive humanitarian action are part of the topics and themes that were produced by the Summit Secretariat. They are also pillars to Humanity & Inclusion's work and interventions.

Inclusive education

In inclusive education, Humanity & Inclusion commits to working with local education actors to train teachers to include students with disabilities. The work will include a focus on supporting children and young people with a range of diverse and complex needs, such as intellectual disabilities, communication impairments and psychosocial disabilities. Humanity & Inclusion commits to developing a guidebook and toolkits within the next two years, to developing research on the itinerant teacher and support mechanism model, and to applying these innovations in at least five new flagship projects over the next two years. Amongst other actions, Humanity & Inclusion also commits to advocating for financing efforts, to strengthen inclusive education systems and increase investments, in international platforms and networks.

Inclusive health

For the health sector, Humanity & Inclusion is focusing on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Among other items, the organization is committing to develop at least four new inclusive SRHR projects over the next four years, through meaningful participation of organizations of persons with disabilities. In addition, through continued and renewed advocacy with key partners, Humanity & Inclusion commits to influence at least four policies, strategic planning or budgeting processes in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and European Union in the next 4 years. 

Inclusive humanitarian assistance 

Persons with disabilities are routinely ignored during disaster preparedness and often left behind when disaster strikes. More climate-induced disasters will increase the vulnerability of persons with disabilities. To fight against that, Humanity & Inclusion is committing to support persons with disabilities to meaningfully participate in humanitarian responses. By the end of 2025, the organization will develop, pilot and share two sets of tools for field professionals and three lessons learned from case studies.

Cross-cutting issues

Humanity & Inclusion has also created a commitment on meaningful engagement and sustained partnerships with OPDs across all of its projects. Throughout livelihood and education initiatives, Humanity & Inclusion will implement capacity building on advocacy and inclusive policies in five countries by the end of 2026. The organization has also made a commitment on acknowledging disability, gender and age as cross cutting components and critical vulnerability factors for populations affected by sudden onset or long-term crisis or poverty. Recognizing the diversity of the disability community, Humanity & Inclusion is committing to implement its disability, gender and age framework within all its projects by the end of 2023, to ensure that further marginalized groups, such as persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, receive equal opportunities and representation in all initiatives.

The meaningful participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities is also key in many other topics, such as climate action and disaster risk reduction. Humanity & Inclusion attended COP—a global climate change summit—in Glasgow in 2021 and disability inclusion was not at all on people’s radar.

What outcomes is HI expecting of the GDS?

We need to increase the scale and ensure that disability inclusion is meaningful, not just a tick mark. Humanity & Inclusion is definitely advocating for more funding on inclusion projects. The organization also wants stakeholders to be intentional about disability inclusion from the very beginning and include OPDs in the design of their projects.

Humanity & Inclusion is expecting more dedication from States, UN entities and donors to support inclusive actions. Commitments are not legally binding agreements and there was a lack of response from some stakeholders at the last summit. For this summit, there has to be more pressure, more follow-up. Commitments have to be much more time-bound and practical, so that they are more likely to be achieved.

What added value can HI bring?

The GDS is very aligned to Humanity & Inclusion’s work and mission. For 40 years, Humanity & Inclusion has worked alongside persons with disabilities and populations living in situations of extreme hardship, in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions, promote and respect their dignity and fundamental rights. Humanity & Inclusion is also unique in that it is working in situations of poverty and exclusion, but also conflicts and disasters. The organization’s actions encompass the thematic pillars of the summit, focusing on more development context through education and health but also working in many situations focused on humanitarian action.

Furthermore, through its disability, gender and age policy, Humanity & Inclusion is taking more of an intersectional approach to inclusion. This approach is gaining a lot of traction globally: it is an important time and momentum to look at the various identities of a person and the role they play in their everyday lives.

Why is it important to support OPDs?

Obviously, we have to stay true to the disability rights motto: nothing about us without us. How could we work on disability rights without including persons with disabilities? They are the experts of their own needs, the barriers they face and accessibility. They must play a central role in ensuring that their human rights are translated into concrete measures that improve their lives.

OPDs are a way for persons with disabilities to come together and have a united voice. That uniform voice and collective movement has really played a huge role in the traction that the disability movement has had globally.

Humanity & Inclusion has historically always partnered with local organizations, to promote their meaningful participation, equal access to opportunities and resources as well as accessibility of the environment.

For instance, Humanity & Inclusion’s teams are working in Iraq with the Iraqi Alliance of Disability (IADO). In 2019, Humanity & Inclusion supported IADO in a joint publication on a shadow report on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which helped the UN committee learn more of a civil society perspective. It led to 69 recommendations to the Iraqi government, which actually encouraged the Prime Minister to sign a decree to reserve a certain percentage of jobs for persons with disabilities.

What is HI doing to support OPDs?

Humanity & Inclusion has been supporting the implementation of the CRPD in 59 countries and currently has about 35 country projects across 25 countries, where it is working with OPDs. Humanity & Inclusion is supporting OPDs through small grants, capacity building (workshops and trainings on creating an advocacy action plan, for instance), partnership building and elevated advocacy efforts, from the local to the regional, national and international levels.

Humanity & Inclusion’s main goal is to work at the local, very grassroots level, and then support those efforts to reach the national and international level, to create networks and spark constructive dialogues. For instance, Humanity & Inclusion has a regional capacity-building program in 15 countries in West Africa. The lead OPD partner is the Western Association of the Federation of Persons with Disabilities, who is in turn supporting smaller federations of OPDs.

In most contexts, Humanity & Inclusion does not need to play the advocacy role, as the organization is only acting as a support and not replacing OPDs.

Ruby Holmes is an inclusive governance global specialist. She has been working at HI for over 3 years and represents the organization in a number of international consortiums. She is working alongside HI teams to help them support civil society and organizations of persons with disabilities, through training materials, capacity-building workshops, advocacy events, etc. She is making sure HI is partnering with local organizations and that they're being engaged in a very meaningful way.

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Earlier this month, a delegation from Handicap International attended the annual Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the United Nations in New York. Handicap International U.S. Executive Director Jeff Meer shares his experience.

There were many notable moments from the 2017 COSP. There was the announcement by Canada that it was joining the evolving consensus on the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action. Although widely anticipated, the speech by Canadian Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities Carla Qualtrough was exhilarating.

There were the mentions of Handicap International as an important or key actor in plenary speeches by multiple nations, including Burundi and Italy. These international affirmations made all of those in the HI delegation proud.

And there was the announcement by UNICEF of the release of an operational guide to the inclusion of people with disabilities in emergency aid provision. This project, in which HI, along with the International Disability Alliance, was intimately involved, spanned more than two years of effort by staff in Lyon and in the field.

But for me, two moments really stood out among the rest, and gave new meaning to the phrase I heard a lot at the conference from people with disabilities: “Nothing about us without us.”

Mia Farah, a woman with developmental disabilities from Lebanon, gave an opening speech for the conference. In remarks delivered slowly and carefully before more than 100 national delegations and hundreds of NGO representatives in the great hall of the General Assembly, she described what it was like to grow up with a disability in Lebanon, and how she had come to understand the importance of voting. Her voice reached a crescendo when she said: “I know my rights and no one can take them away from me!”

On the conference’s final day, I attended a side session with another member of the HI delegation: Katie Smith of Pennsylvania.  Katie, a member of the HI USA Advisory Council, is a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair. She works at the Peal Center in Pittsburgh, helping young people with disabilities reach their educational and professional goals. Prior to her injury, Katie had been an avid rugby player, and has continued to play her favorite sport – called murderball – in a specially-designed wheelchair.

The session we attended was on the subject of working with children with disabilities. Katie, who had never before participated in a UN meeting, waited until after the panelists had spoken, and then mentioned the vital role that sports can play in the life of a child with disabilities, particularly fostering an ability to advocate for one’s self. She didn’t have to add what a vital role sports has played in her own life.

These two moments, among many others, crystallized for me why we at Handicap International believe so deeply in the importance of the rights enshrined in the CRPD. For some they seem abstract, but for Mia and Katie, the Treaty’s words come to life every day. And for that reason, we must always be vigilant to protect them.

A few days ago I went to the store to grab a few items. As I was checking out, the cashier looked to me and said, “It’s nice to see you guys out and about.” Confused at first because I was by myself, she proceeded to explain that she sees a woman in a wheelchair visit the store regularly. And so by “you guys,” she means, “you, the disabled.”

On Dec. 3, we celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This month, we also mark the 10^th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. At no point in my lifetime have so many people with disabilities had so many opportunities and attention all over the world. Yet, we still face plenty of challenges in the disability community. Disability in the workplace is one of them. Better put, disability that’s not in the workplace.

People celebrate the 9th anniversary of the CRPD in Bolivia. 

Takoma Park, Maryland — Motivational speaker and disability advocate Jessica Cox, the world’s first person without arms to obtain a pilot’s license, is traveling to Washington, D.C., to persuade Senators to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Last December, the Senate failed to pass the CRPD by five votes.

The CRPD, a treaty that protects the rights of people with disabilities and which was modeled on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has been adopted by more than 150 countries. During her visit to Washington June 4-7, Cox hopes to convince more Senators to support the CRPD when the treaty next comes to the floor for a vote.

Cox plans to share her personal story and the stories of other people with disabilities she has met in the U.S. and abroad with decision makers in Washington. Despite being born without arms, Cox earned a degree from University of Arizona and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, runs her own business, and flies an airplane. She recently returned from Ethiopia, where she visited children with disabilities taking part in Handicap International’s inclusive education project. Ethiopia ratified the CRPD in 2008.

“I was lucky enough to be born in the U.S. where disability laws enabled me to go the same schools and participate in the same activities as other kids,” says Cox. “Traveling to Ethiopia with Handicap International, I saw how new disability laws, including the CRPD, were changing lives: children with disabilities who had been kept out of school are now gaining an education. Since the U.S. government is supporting programs that promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in Ethiopia and other countries, it only makes sense that the U.S. Senate should also support the CRPD.”

During her time in Ethiopia, Jessica visited four accessible schools where Handicap International is working thanks to funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). “I remember meeting a 17-year-old girl with intellectual disabilities named Hodan, and she was just starting first grade, because her parents had kept her at home for 16 years,” says Cox. “Before Handicap International started its program, there were no schools equipped to teach children like Hodan, so her parents felt she had no future.”

If passed in the U.S., the CRPD would not supersede any U.S. laws, but its ratification here would demonstrate the country’s support for the human rights of people with disabilities in countries where those rights are routinely denied. The treaty is also vital to protecting the rights of Americans with disabilities, including veterans, when traveling or living overseas.

“As a nonsignatory of the treaty, the U.S.—the only major Western country that has not yet signed—stands among nations with serious human-rights abuses like North Korea and Zimbabwe,” says Elizabeth MacNairn, Executive Director of Handicap International U.S., which is coordinating Cox’s visit to Washington. “It’s time for Congress to right this wrong and ratify the CRPD.”

[Editor’s note: Jessica Cox is available for interviews in Washington, D.C., June 4-6]

About Handicap International
Co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an independent international aid organization. It has been working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster for 30 years. Working alongside persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, our actions and testimony focus on responding to their essential needs, improving their living conditions, and promoting respect for their dignity and basic rights. Since 1982, Handicap International has set up development programs in more than 60 countries and intervenes in numerous emergency situations. The network of eight national associations (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States) works constantly to mobilize resources, jointly manage projects and to increase the impact of the organization's principles and actions. Handicap International is one of six founding organizations of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and winner of the 2011 Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Handicap International takes action and campaigns in places where “standing tall” is no easy task.

Contacts
Mica Bevington, Director of Communications and Marketing
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3531
[email protected]

Molly Feltner, Communications and Marketing Officer
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3528
[email protected]

Takoma Park, Maryland — Handicap International welcomes the publication today of UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children report, which highlights children with disabilities and the extreme difficulties they face. Handicap International witnesses the exclusion of children with disabilities every day in the 61 countries in which it operates. The organization supports UNICEF’s recommendations.

Nearly half of Handicap International’s direct beneficiaries are under the age of 18. The organization supports children with disabilities by providing rehabilitation care, promoting inclusive education and psychological assistance, and preventing the many causes of disability, including those caused by explosive remnants of war.

According to UNICEF, 93 million children under the age of 14 have a disability. Due to gaps in the data, this estimate is likely to be lower than the actual number. The reports describes many of the injustices suffered by children with disabilities: In addition to being stigmatized and excluded from health and education services, children with disabilities are three to four times more likely to be victims of violence and are also often neglected or abandoned by their families.

“Out of all the vulnerable people we encounter, they are often the most fragile,” says Ludovic Bourbé, Handicap International’s director of technical services. “In Afghanistan, for example, 68% of victims of mines and explosive remnants of war are children. One quarter of injured people case-managed by Handicap International in northern Syria are under the age of 12.”

The UNICEF report offers a number of recommendations for improving conditions for children with disabilities, starting with the ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). One hundred and fifty-five countries—not including the U.S.— have signed the CRPD but the full implementation of its protocol requires rigorous enforcement and monitoring. Other key recommendations include adding accessibility features to public facilities like schools and hospitals, and providing support services to families with children with disabilities.

Yet, the current funding allocated to support the recommendations listed in the report is insufficient. According to a February 2012 study conducted by Handicap International and HelpAge, less than 0.5% of international humanitarian aid is allocated to people with disabilities.

“This report clearly lays out the precarious situation of children with disabilities in the developing world,” says Elizabeth MacNairn, executive director of Handicap International U.S. “However, only 10% of the children with disabilities living in the countries where we work are getting the support they need. This cannot stand. Humanitarian operators and funders must do more to improve the situation of these children, who are the most vulnerable members of society.”

About Handicap International
Co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an independent international aid organization. It has been working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster for 30 years. Working alongside persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, our actions and testimony focus on responding to their essential needs, improving their living conditions, and promoting respect for their dignity and basic rights. Since 1982, Handicap International has set up development programs in more than 60 countries and intervenes in numerous emergency situations. The network of eight national associations (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States) works constantly to mobilize resources, jointly manage projects and to increase the impact of the organization's principles and actions. Handicap International is one of six founding organizations of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and winner of the 2011 Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Handicap International takes action and campaigns in places where “standing tall” is no easy task.

Contacts
Mica Bevington, Director of Communications and Marketing
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3531
[email protected]

Molly Feltner, Communications and Marketing Officer
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3528
[email protected]