2004: Year of the Emergence of Persons with Disabilities in Ibero-America

In Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, Ibero-American disability organizations have defined the objectives and lines of action for 2004, the Ibero-American Year of Persons with Disabilities. The governments of the member countries have pledged to approve far reaching national plans for this year, which will end with a regional conference of ministers in the field of disability, in Costa Rica in November, coinciding with the XIV Summit of Presidents and Head of State of Ibero-America.

This 2004 cannot really be a year of celebration in a continent where developing countries are very far from the reality of welfare for all. Here persons with disabilities lack equal opportunities, mainly because there are almost no social and work integration programs, and there are no permanent plans toward accessibility and full enjoyment of human rights for all. Here, the majority of the population subsists under the hardships of poverty and governmental institutions are not efficient at meeting the needs of the people who need more help.

This reality demands the urgent commitment from administrations, political parties, and social organizations. In Ibero-America, it must be a strong commitment, fostering a positive change, and a solution to the immediate needs of more than 53 million persons with disabilities and their families, as is estimated by the World Health Organization.

The Official Follow Up Committee

In November, 2003, the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, hosted the XIII Ibero-American Summit of Presidents and Heads of State. On that event, it was approved that 2004 would be the Ibero-American Year of Persons with Disabilities. A few months later, from March 20 to April 2 of 2004, Santa Cruz de la Sierra also hosted a Seminar organized by IMSERSO, the Ibero-American Inter-Governmental Network for Technical Cooperation (Red Intergubernamental Iberoamericana de Cooperación Técnica, RIICOTEC), the Ibero-American Network of Organizations Persons with Disabilities and their Families (Red Iberoamericana de Organizaciones de Personas con Discapacidad y sus Familias, RIADIS) and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional).

The participants decided to establish an Official Follow Up Committee to verify the results of the Ibero-American Year, 2004. The Committee will foster qualitative and quantitative improvements in the living conditions among the disability sector.

The first thing that the Ibero-American Network did was to elaborate a Plan of Action and deliver it to all the governments of the region. This Plan of Action will be discussed during the Meeting of the Disability Councils of all the countries of Ibero-America, during their meeting next June in Quito, Ecuador.

Disability and development cooperation

As proposed by CERMI, a founding member of the Ibero-American Network and one of its vice presidents, the European Union and each of its members are being called to consider disability as a permanent factor of preferential attention within development cooperation policies and programs. CERMI was represented at the Seminar by its Executive Director, Luis Cayo Pérez Bueno.

This Seminar also calls for the European Union to direct at least 10% of the total funds of development aid budget to plans and programs aimed at persons with disabilities. National and international organizations of persons with disabilities must be part of the planning, operation, and follow up stages of these programs.

The participants of this Seminar requested that the European Union, the major international disability organizations, and other nongovernmental organizations in the development field, enforce conditions by which the recipient countries of international funds, must include disability issues as part of their infrastructure and programs, including accessibility for all its citizens.

Three levels for action

The Ibero-American Network of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities and their Families fosters establishing effective public policies for improving the living conditions of persons with disabilities and their families, particularly those living in poverty.

This Network considers that it is important to expose the social reality of disability in Ibero-America. There is a great need for more research (studies, surveys, polls, and census) and analytical work on existing data and national and international legislation, to foster a coherent and strong political action.

The three levels of action cover three major areas:

1. Communication and information which among other initiatives include the publication of bulletins, a series of press conferences to disseminate information and news about actions planned or being performed, together with the operation of a WEB for the Ibero-American Network.
   
2. Organization, including the creation of country Committee with the purpose of advancing in the national Plans of Action, including its calendar, which must be ready on May 15.
   
3. Political Action, to commit the States to fulfill the objectives of the Ibero-American Year of Persons with Disabilities, which officially is to be inaugurated before May 15. Efforts should also be made to promote the work toward the International Convention on the Defense and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. Efforts must be made to include persons with disabilities as part of the official delegations to the meetings of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee. Another objective in this area of Political Action is to present and official request to the Organization of American States, so this international will establish the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities, as it is indicated on Article VI of the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities.

The Ibero-American Platform

One of the main objectives of the Ibero-American Network of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities, which is also presented to the XIV Ibero-American Summit of Presidents and Heads of State and the Ibero-American nations, is the creation of an Ibero-American organization to foster and coordinate the regional public policies on disability. One of the objectives of the new international organization is to foster and channel the cooperation for development from the European Union and its Member States.

The Ibero-American Network urges the establishment of a National Commission for the Coordination of the Activities of the Ibero-American Year of Persons with Disabilities. It must be composed of representatives of all government powers, ministers and administration departments, together with institutions, universities, the media, the civil society, and organizations representing persons with disabilities.

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