Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

EditorialThe rights of all disabled people, including thoseof children, have been reiterated and given a newimpetus with the Convention on the Rights ofPersons with Disabilities, which was signed onopening day, 30 March 2007, by the representativesof an unprecedented 81 countries. This follows anunequivocal statement made by Heads of Stateand Government, adopted by the United NationsGeneral Assembly following the May 2002 SpecialSession on Children:Each girl and boy is born free and equal in dignityand rights; therefore, all forms of discriminationaffecting children must end.... We will take allmeasures to ensure the full and equal enjoymentof all human rights and fundamental freedoms,including equal access to health, education andrecreational services, by children with disabilitiesand children with special needs, to ensure therecognition of their dignity, to promote their selfreliance,and to facilitate their active participationin the community. 1The daily reality for most children with a disabilityis that they are often condemned to a ’poor start inlife’ and deprived of opportunities to develop to theirfull potential and to participate in society. They areroutinely denied access to the same opportunitiesfor early, primary and secondary education, orlife-skills and vocational training, or both, that areavailable to other children. They either have no voiceor their views are discounted. Although they areinvariably more vulnerable to abuse and violence,their testi-mony is often ignored or dismissed.In this way, their isolation is perpetuated as theyprepare for adult life.Yet there are changes for the better. Much hasbeen accomplished by governments and theirpartners working at all levels of society. Increasingnumbers of children who would have previouslybeen sent to segregated schools or even beendenied an education altogether now attend regularclasses at their local school and are accepted asmembers of their local community. Achievingthe full participation in society of children withdisabilities is an objective of the global disabilityrights movement, a powerful initiative by personswith disabilities to claim their basic human rights.This movement is gaining momentum and hasrecorded impressive achievements. Disabledpersons’ organizations have successfully promotededucation reforms in many countries, and theyhave been recognized as a major force behind theprocess leading to the Convention on the Rights ofPersons with Disabilities.vi Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities Innocenti Digest No. 13