New UN Report on Disability and Sustainable Development Goals

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“The UN Flagship Report on Disability and Development 2018 – Realizing the SDGs by, for and with persons with disabilities shows that people with disabilities are at a disadvantage regarding most Sustainable Development Goals, but also highlights the growing number of good practices that can create a more inclusive society in which they can live independently.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, observed on 3 December 2018

Twelve years after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the international community continue to champion the commitments of the Convention at this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December, by affirming the fundamental role this group plays in building inclusive societies for all.

Under the theme “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”, the International Day looked at ways in which persons with disabilities contribute to eradicate all forms of discrimination and intolerances against them and to promote an equitable and sustainable development envisaged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

During The International Day, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) launched the first UN Flagship Report on Disability and Development on the “Realization of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities”. The report demonstrates that persons with disabilities are at a disadvantage regarding most Sustainable Development Goals. Concrete action is needed to make their situations visible in policymaking. We need to recognize the potential of persons with disabilities as contributors to society.

The 2030 Agenda, pledging to “leave no one behind,” is an ambitious plan of action of the international community towards a peaceful and prosperous world, where dignity of an individual person and equality among all is applied as the fundamental principle, cutting across the three pillars of the work of the United Nations: Development, Human Rights and Peace and Security. It is critical to ensure, in this regard, the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and create enabling environments by, for and with persons with disabilities.