Friday, December 4, 2009

December 3rd, United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities





The UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities started off pretty interesting as our Messenger of Peace was Stevie Wonder. General-Secretary Ban ki-moon mentioned that PwDs should be included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He later introduced Stevie Wonder.

Then Stevie Wonder spoke but during his speech, the fire alarm went off and all of us had to evacuate the building. Since we waited outside for a while, Stevie Wonder, General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon, Ambassador Susan E. Rice (who was scheduled to speak) left. Stevie never finished his speech.

When we got back in the conference room, children from a school in Brooklyn sang Stevie Wonder songs.

Then panelists from the World Bank, Philippines, Republic of Tanzania, World Health Organization, United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, and AARP spoke. Some of them talked about disability rights laws passed in their countries and the need to include people with disabilities in the MDGs but did not offer practical steps in the “how.” They acknowledged this problem. The panelists said getting data and stats on disability in time for the MDGs review progress in 2010 is the biggest challenge. Although there is some information available, we still need to send the information out to the government in 2010.

After lunch, the NYC Commissioner Matthew Sapolin from the Mayor’s Office of Persons with Disabilities spoke about community and economic empowerment for PwDs through aggressive dialog with their constituents with disabilities, meetings, forums, seminars, and conferences, and coalition building with groups who will benefit such as seniors citizens and people with disabilities.

The celebration closed with four international films focused on positive images of people with different disabilities, and a reception followed.

No comments: