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Africa: Int'l Conference to Call for Action On PWDs, Poverty, Discrimination, Lack of Access of PWDs

Biruk Girma

16 May 2008

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Addis Ababa — An international conference scheduled to be held next week in Addis Ababa is expected to call for global action on poverty, discrimination and lack of access to basic services for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), organizers said on Thursday.

The three-day conference will be the largest meet on disability since the convention came into force on 3 May 2008.

It will deliberate on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Organizers said the vision of the conference was for the convention to be effectively ratified around the world and to make the process of implementation transparent, meaningful and fully inclusive.

Around 300 participants drawn from 55 countries of the world will take part in the conference calling for an inclusive development atmosphere for Persons With Disabilities (PWD).

In December 2006, the UN General Assembly agreed on the convention, which has so far been ratified by 20 countries most of which are developing nations.

The convention is to come into force this month.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 650 million people in the world, perhaps 10% on the total population experience various forms of disabilities of which 80%, 400 million people live in poor countries.

The combination of poverty, ignorance, war, famine and drought with the absence of adequate preventive and rehabilitation services is said to be behind high prevalence of disability in Ethiopia.

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