Global-Report-Living-Colour-dr2-2

Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities
GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY
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Issues of diversity and unique religious and cultural issues
were raised in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region and others. Our efforts in regions where the
cultural norm for all people is to continue to live within the
family unit as adults, revealed confusion about what is
meant by living and being included in the community. We
discovered it is often inaccurately understood to mean
living alone. Respondents informed us that cultural and
religious perspectives on living and being included in the
community had to be reflected in our understanding of
Article 19.
Through focus groups, surveys and stories we heard that
stigma and shame remain a challenge. In the MENA
region, our regional coordinators reported that:
“...admitting to having a girl with intellectual disabilities,
especially if she has more than one sibling who is also a
girl, might mean that sister/s will not be married.”
Nevertheless there are currently encouraging
developments in the emergence of self-advocacy and the
understanding among people with intellectual disabilities
that they too have rights.
Intra-regional differences were noted in most of the
regions but nowhere more so than in the Asia Pacific
region. The region is vast in size and home to 60% of the
world’s population. The differences between countries in
the region – New Zealand to India to Vietnam – are
substantial. While the study pointed to the many
differences in the lives and experiences of people with
intellectual disabilities and families from country to
country, it also highlighted a substantive rise in the selfadvocacy
movement throughout the region. We received
many stories from self-advocates in Japan, Hong Kong,
Malaysia, Myanmar, and Cambodia. These stories provide
exciting examples of self-advocacy that are documented
throughout the report.