December 3 every year is marked as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
This day is set aside by the United Nations
to remember people who are living with disabilities around the world.
Image:United Nations
According to the United Nations, " of the one billion population of persons with disabilities, 80% live in developing countries.
An estimated 46% of older people aged 60 years and over are people with disabilities.
One in every five women is likely to experience a disability in her life, while one in every ten children is a child with a disability.
Persons with disabilities in the world are among the hardest hit by COVID-19."
These people are most often excluded and left behind in the scheme of things, especially in these times when the world is grappling with many crises including the resultant shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other countries, and climate change which all pose unprecedented humanitarian challenges and threats to the global economy.
However, the United Nations is urging governments, and public and private sectors to join hands to make the world a more accessible and equitable place for persons living with disabilities by finding innovative solutions for and with their challenges in line with the central premise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind.”
The United Nations says that the commitment to achieving inclusion and the rights of persons with disabilities is not only a matter of justice but also an investment in a common future and a sure way of upholding human rights, sustainable development, peace, and security around the world.
Innovation and transformative solutions for inclusive development is the theme for the 2022 global observance to commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Society and Culture
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