The global disability community must respond dynamically and in partnership to the critical challenges of the 21st century
Address by Lex Frieden, President, Rehabilitation International to RI European Conference, Aachen, Germany, November 11, 2002
Honored patrons, colleagues and friends: It is my great honor and a sincere pleasure to address you here today.
Thank you to the sponsoring organizations and thank you to all of the people who have worked so hard to make this a successful conference. I appreciate your hospitality and I look forward to the stimulating program you have planned for us.
In my remarks this morning, I will share with you some thoughts about Rehabilitation International, the organization that I am representing here today. I will also briefly discuss three imperatives -- important goals to which I believe we should all be committed.
The RI of today
I think many of you have heard about Rehabilitation International. Because of its age -- it was founded in 1922 -- you may think of it as an old and outdated organization. Because of a somewhat paternalistic past -- in 1939 it was called The International Society for the Welfare of Cripples -- you may believe it is irrelevant in the context of the modern paradigms of rehabilitation, disability, and consumer-direction.
But I implore you not to jump to such conclusions... Today, RI is an exceptional organization in many positive respects. Today, RI is the only international disability organization that welcomes into its membership any organization which is committed to its goals and purposes, regardless of whether that organization is composed mostly of people with disabilities or not, regardless of whether it is governmental or nongovernmental, and regardless of whether it is made up mostly of professionals or non-professionals. Further, today, RI is a vibrant, dynamic organization led by people with disabilities as well as by some without disabilities. Its membership is growing and it includes many different types of organizations from throughout the world -- In fact, the two most active regions in the RI family today are Asia and the Middle East (our Arab region).
Four main aims
Today, RI has four major aims: 1) to ensure opportunities for equal participation and equal rights for people with disabilities around the world, 2) to increase public awareness and improve public attitudes toward people with disabilities in society, 3) to ensure the provision and improve the quality of rehabilitation services worldwide, and 4) to prevent, where possible, disabilities caused by armed conflict, poverty, illness, birth defects, and societal mistreatment and neglect.
I invite you to join RI and become part of our 21st century re-invention. I believe you will find ample opportunities to contribute to the organization and I believe that by working together with disabled and non-disabled colleagues on issues of international significance, you will find ways to broaden your interests, expand your network of international friends and colleagues, and share in the achievements of our multi-faceted organization. Please do join us.
Global challenges
In the world today, in the most modern and advanced civilization known to man, people with disabilities are suffering on every continent, some more than ever before. It is not enough for us to say we have achieved a lot. It is not enough for us to say there are others capable of addressing the issues in the world today facing people with disabilities. It is not enough for us to say that the world has changed and our work is not relevant anymore. It is not enough to say that our governments do not support our work as they once did. It is not enough to say that our organizations are too small or that our dues are too high. It is not enough to say that our leadership is flawed or that our workers and our volunteers are tired.
There are more than 600 million people with disabilities in the world today. More than three-quarters of these people live in developing and poor countries, where poverty is the general rule. Large numbers of those who are most challenged live near here, on the Eastern and Southern doorsteps of Europe. Most people who have disabilities in these poor countries are on the very lowest end of the social and economic scale. They are surviving, virtually without hope, simply because their humanity and courage keeps them alive. Even in more developed and relatively rich countries, in Europe and in North America, the majority of people with disabilities are found on the low end of the socio-economic scale.
Three imperatives
I mentioned imperatives in my introduction -- I believe that there are three imperatives to which we all must commit ourselves in order to ensure that people with disabilities are able to share in the future of human kind and even to obtain the basic amenities of life in the present time.
First, we must work together in partnership. We must stop fighting, stop competing, stop working at cross purposes. Groups representing different disabilities must work together, disabled and non-disabled people must work together, professionals and consumers must work together, disability leaders in developed and less developed countries must work together.
As one means of achieving the goal of partnership among cross-disability groups, the leaders of six major international disability organizations have formed the International Disability Alliance (IDA) to advocate for equality and social justice for people with disabilities around the world. For its part, Rehabilitation International is working to bring together consumers, advocates, family members, rehabilitation professionals, and government leaders to work on policies and programs designed to empower people with disabilities. Even with these exemplary efforts, there is a need for more work to resolve the differences between the various interest groups in the disability movement and to break down the barriers which prevent their coordinated and mutually supportive achievements.
Second, we must empower people with disabilities. Our governments must institute and enforce policies and laws that protect the rights and promote opportunities for people with disabilities, and they must assure that public services are equally accessible for all people with disabilities. Our commercial enterprises, businesses, and industries must implement procedures that allow their services and products to be accessible to people with disabilities, and they must provide employment and job development opportunities to people with disabilities. Our schools must fully address the educational needs of people with disabilities, and they must ensure that no one is left behind due to physical or programmatic barriers. Our mosques, churches, and synagogues must assure full access so that people with disabilities can find spiritual support as they wish.
Our professions must actively encourage and recruit people with disabilities. Our social service organizations must identify, prioritize, and address the support service needs of people with disabilities in the community to assure that people are not prevented from reaching goals due to lack of services or other infrastructure barriers, and they must strive to serve them in a manner which assures dignity and promotes independence.
People with disabilities should be empowered to make decisions affecting their lives. People with disabilities should be empowered to engage in independent living. People with disabilities must be empowered with rights to protect them from discrimination. In fact, people with disabilities must be empowered socially, culturally, politically, and economically.
Third, we must have a United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities which is enforceable and which extends assurances of assistance to every disabled person in every country of the world. Such a treaty will need to be supplemented and implemented by national laws.
Recently, there has been an encouraging trend toward implementation of national disability laws and policies that commit governments to providing access to necessary services and promoting inclusion in society. In addition, there are disability-specific instruments of the U.N., such as the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons and the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. However, these instruments, while useful in providing guidelines, are not legally binding.
A convention at the United Nations on the Rights of People with Disabilities offers these advantages: it would be well known to all people in the world, it would serve to collate all of the provisions and rules that address treatment of people with disabilities by UN member nations, and it would provide clearly understood and organized methods for enforcement of its provisions on behalf of people with disabilities.
Now is the time to act
I am convinced that now is the time for the global disability community to act in partnership to achieve full recognition of our rights and appropriate implementation of remedies to discrimination, including the provision of needed services and the opportunity to obtain economic as well as social justice.
I am fearful that as the world becomes a smaller place to live in, and as we all properly begin to share in the rich benefits of our human intellect and our planet, that we will compromise certain expectations and standards to which those of us in richer, more developed countries have grown accustomed.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues and friends: My intent, and my commitment, which I hope you share, is to work together with advocates and people with disabilities, with rehabilitation professionals and service providers, and with policy makers to set a high standard for services and support to people with disabilities and a fair standard for rights of people with disabilities, and to reach those standards so that people with disabilities everywhere can enjoy their lives; so they can have the opportunity to improve their standard of living and that of their families; so they can be fully contributing members of their respective families, communities and societies; and so they can contribute to improving the quality of life and standard of living for all other people throughout the world.
In order to achieve these goals, all of us must recognize our closeness to one another in a world where we are growing more interdependent every day, and we must work dynamically and harmoniously together in partnership. Together, we can create a new future for people with disabilities around the world--and it will be a better one for us all.
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