United Nations Secretary-General Calls for Action on Disability Rights

Strategic Insights -

In a speech to the 18th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the United Nations Secretary-General emphasized the need for collective action to advance the rights of persons with disabilities. This year's conference focuses on financing, technology, and the rights of Indigenous persons with disabilities. The Secretary-General highlighted the need for targeted investments and tailored solutions to address gaps in realizing the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as the importance of harnessing the transformative power of technologies like artificial intelligence to advance inclusion.

Key Takeaways:

  • The UN Disability and Development Report found that nearly all SDG indicators for persons with disabilities are off track, with persons with disabilities facing higher poverty, greater unemployment, and more limited access to education, jobs, and digital technologies.
  • The Pact for the Future, adopted last year, reinforces the call for a more peaceful, inclusive, accessible, and equitable world where persons with disabilities play a full and equal role in advancing sustainable development, climate action, and digital transformation.
  • Targeted investments and tailored solutions, such as microfinance, social impact bonds, and public-private alliances, are needed to address gaps in realizing the rights of persons with disabilities.
  • Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities must work to unlock capital to fund inclusion today and build sustainable, inclusive systems for tomorrow.
  • The Secretary-General emphasized the need for advancing the Pact for the Future's calls to recapitalize Multilateral Development Banks, provide debt relief, and reform the international financial architecture.
  • Artificial intelligence has immense potential to advance inclusion, but biases are being hardwired into algorithms, and regulations on accessibility of emerging technologies are sorely lacking.
  • The Global Digital Compact has made clear that AI technologies must empower all people, including persons with disabilities, and ensure that no one is left behind in the digital age.
  • Realizing the rights of Indigenous persons with disabilities requires culturally appropriate approaches and meaningful inclusion in decision-making.
  • Indigenous persons with disabilities face intersecting forms of discrimination, limiting their rights, and disparities are stark, with indigenous women and girls with disabilities facing greater rates of violence, isolation, and lack of support services.

Statistics:

  • Global support for disability inclusion has been cut in half, falling from $500 million to $250 million in just two years.
  • 70% of AI-powered assistive technologies are concentrated in developed economies.
  • Indigenous persons with disabilities attend fewer years of school, earn half as much income, and hold fewer leadership roles in Latin America.
  • Indigenous women and girls with disabilities face greater rates of violence, isolation, and lack of support services in Latin America.

Sources:

  • "United Nations secretary general Welcome to the 18th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities." United Nations News (http://milnz.co.nz/mil-osi-aggregation/)
  • "The Pact for the Future, adopted last year, reinforces the call for a more peaceful, inclusive, accessible, and equitable world -- one in which persons with disabilities play a full and equal role in advancing sustainable development, climate action, and digital transformation."
  • "The UN Disability and Development Report." United Nations News (http://milnz.co.nz/mil-osi-aggregation/)
  • "Global Digital Compact." United Nations News (http://milnz.co.nz/mil-osi-aggregation/)