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Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY 35 they do not share a common language – or indeed in some cases have no spoken language – almost always there is a sense that people understand each other and empathize with each other’s situation. Certainly for those who as selfadvocates already have some experience of speaking up for themselves, they are quite quick to share both some common features of the discrimination they face. A common theme is not having access to the same life opportunities as their brothers and sisters. They also discover they have common aspirations like wanting to be listened to by those around them, get the support they need to lead their own lives and join in with what their non-disabled peers take for granted. When family members get together, especially parents of children with intellectual disabilities, they almost always have an immediate and intrinsic understanding of the stories told by other families. They share their experiences of giving birth to a child with a disability, the struggles to get an education for all their children, the need for their children with disabilities to have opportunities to contribute as young adults and the almost global concern about what will happen to their children when they are no longer around. In these senses our movement is based in a very real shared experience of ‘being in this together’ despite other differences which may include personal affluence or access to publicly-funded services. We published much of the material generated through our global studies on the internet. One such publication is the national report from our member in New Zealand (IHC) which gives a particularly clear account of what people with intellectual disabilities and other family members say about their lives and aspirations. Soon after posting this report, we had a message from a Colombian reader whose younger brother is currently attending a special school there to say both how similar what the New Zealanders are saying is to the views of her brother – and how great it was that she and he could take inspiration from the images of a better life shared by people on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean! 1
36 Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY This of course is also the core sentiment which underpins the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the latest (2006) United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The human rights on which the Convention are based are universal: we are one humanity. Our challenge as a global organization is to campaign for these universal principles while recognising and understanding the different realities experienced by our members in different places, and therefore the need to shape strategies for making progress which recognise different starting points, different opportunities and barriers, and different priorities on the long road to building just and inclusive communities across the world. In this report we both concentrate on what is common e.g. the visions shared by people with intellectual disabilities and families summarized in Chapter 4 and also on how efforts to advance the three building blocks for achieving Article 19, (choice (greater self-determination), support and inclusion in the wider community) need to be sensitive to these diverse local and national realities as analyzed more fully in Chapter 5. In the report we try to combine these two objectives, drawing on the material we generated from across the world. In addition we have developed a shorter paper which offers more distinct regional perspectives written by people who have worked with us in each of the five regions which make up Inclusion International and who know the material from their region. Summarizing some themes from these five perspectives highlighted intra-regional commonalities and differences and regionally-specific issues. Our efforts in Europe revealed that as a region the situation of people with intellectual disabilities and families in different countries were more alike than in other regions. Generally, participants indicated that while there has been varying degrees of success in securing community living options, in most countries residential facilities continue to exist and there is consensus that improvements are needed to better support people to live
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