UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed speaks at the opening of the UN Conference on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. UN Conference on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: 2.5 billion people around the world need assistive technology Human Rights
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted 18 years ago, has been ratified by 191 states. Much has been accomplished over the past years, but this work is still far from complete. This was stated by the UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, speaking at the opening of the 17th Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which opened on Tuesday in New York.
This year’s agenda includes three roundtables on current issues ahead of the Future Summit in September. The focus will be on international cooperation in humanitarian emergencies, technological innovation to build an inclusive future, and challenges related to finding decent work.
According to Amina Mohammed, 2 5 billion people in the world need some form of assistive technology, yet only three percent have access to such devices in low-income countries. Moreover, about 80 percent of innovations in such technologies are developed in just three countries – China, Japan and the United States.
Financing is another problem: only 0.1 percent Bilateral, disability-inclusive assistance aims to increase access to assistive technology.
“Across the board, we need to significantly increase investment in assistive technologies that will enable people with disabilities to access education, earn a living and fully participate in the life of their communities,” emphasized the UN Deputy Secretary-General.
She also addressed the situation of persons with disabilities in humanitarian emergencies such as natural disasters and armed conflicts, emphasizing that currently 39 percent of persons with disabilities experience great difficulties or simply cannot evacuate in situations of risk or time of humanitarian emergency.
“It is unacceptable. This percentage has remained virtually unchanged since 2013. Persons with disabilities must be included in formal disaster preparedness and planning processes,” the speaker noted.
As for the employment of people with disabilities, Mohammed noted The population continues to face many challenges: the employment gap between people with and without disabilities is almost 30 percentage points, a figure virtually unchanged from the first Disability and Development Report published six years ago in 2018.
In addition, the UN representative continued, people with disabilities receive lower wages and are mainly employed in the informal economy and self-employment, where working conditions are often more precarious. While 79 percent of countries have laws protecting people with disabilities from discrimination in employment, those protections are not always enforced and have not yet led to more positive employment outcomes, she said.
“We must do a better job of advocating for inclusive hiring practices,” she said. “We must guarantee the equality of persons with disabilities and their right to decent work and equal opportunities in employment.” tools to close these gaps and the 17th session of the Conference of States Parties is an opportunity to make significant progress in this direction.