Mercy Global Concern - 2004

Commission for Social Development Forty-second session
4-13 February 2003

Briefing paper Number 1: January 2004

Statement submitted by: Association Internationale des Charities
Elizabeth Seton Foundation
Sisters of Mercy

Improving Public Sector Effectiveness: "Focus on the Disabled: Challenges, Perspectives, Priorities and Opportunities."

An integral part of the mandate of Social Development is the "silent sector" - those who often do not, or cannot speak for themselves - the disabled. Frequently overlooked, shunned, ignored, or discriminated against, disabled people are deserving of the world's fair-minded attention and the same access to human rights and dignity that everyone else is accorded. The building of a better climate of existence in all areas is a mandate of NGO's, who are in a key position to bring together the public sector, governments, business interests and individual donors to form a partnership on behalf of the handicapped.

Facts to face:

• It is estimated that there are millions of people who are disabled in some way.
• Tens of millions have disabilities that affect their minds and bodies, ranging in intensity from arrested childhood development, to blindness and the inability to walk.
• Close to 70%of the disabled in the United States are unemployed, further adding to their sense of worthlessness in the human plan.
• A quarter-million Americans are victims of multiple sclerosis (MS), a progressive intermitting disease with no cure.
• HIV/AIDS patients now number around 40 million globally.
• Countless numbers of babies are born annually with birth defects, often to drug-addicted mothers. Thousands more are born each year to mothers without pre-natal care, further comprising the infants' health and making it prone to malaria, tuberculosis and other life-threatening diseases.
• According to a Japanese senator who is herself wheelchair bound, there are 400,000 disabled persons in Asia, of whom 160,000 are unemployed.

Challenges:

• Identify the disabled, often a difficult task since in many places they still hide behind closed doors, many times at their own wish, unwilling to face yet another experience of public pity, shunning or feelings of inadequacy.
• Determine to the degree of disability; introduce methodology to help overcome fears and ensure their integration into society via medical and psychological care, education and skills development.
• Strengthen local community, government and support systems.
• Create handicapped friendly workplace environments and recreational facilities.
• Strategize to reduce barriers that limit the handicapped, expressed by ignorance, injustice and even involuntary exclusion.
• While public awareness of the plight of the disabled has increased in the past two decades, there is still a long way to go to insure their acceptance as viable members of society. Strategizing on how to accomplish this goal is a major priority.

Perspectives:

• Focus on current causes of people's disabilities and make a concentrated effort to minimize their disastrous effects: landmines, catastrophic industrial accidents; various forms of abuse; germ-based occurrences; birth defects; untreated early -life diseases; occupational hazards; the use of illegal weapons; domestic accidents and more.

• Realize that the disabled have a corner on vulnerability, with little or no mobility, limited access to services, difficulty in transportation, discrimination or patronizing attitudes in the job market, all of which serve to lessen their hopes of rehabilitation.

• Develop an awareness of the problems of the disabled by transferring the focus from their handicaps to their assets and abilities, to add to the quality of life around them.

Priorities:

• Make available to the handicapped the assurance of their right to human security and dignity as proclaimed by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his opening address to the 56th Annual DPI/NGO Conference in New York.
• Encourage tolerance and a spirit of welcome by providing access to education, special job-training skills, and information on new developments in medical technology, therapies and industrial workshops. Involve families and advocates, caregivers, institutions and public sector as well as patients themselves in this" sharing" experience. Coordinated partnerships like these are the way forward.

Deirdre Mullan RSM
Representing the Sisters of Mercy at the UN