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Home Newsroom News and press releases OSCE/ODIHR Director calls for increased co-operation with persons with disabilities, their organizations on International Day of Persons with Disabilities
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OSCE/ODIHR Director calls for increased co-operation with persons with disabilities, their organizations on International Day of Persons with Disabilities

WARSAW 2 December 2017

WARSAW, 2 December 2017 ─ Ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, marked on 3 December , Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir invited participating States to establish closer partnerships with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations to jointly work towards more representative and equal societies.

“Persons with disabilities remain widely under-represented and invisible in political and public life across the OSCE region,” said Gísladóttir. “Taking steps to remove the barriers that contribute to the political exclusion of persons with disabilities will help to ensure broader respect for human rights and build more resilient societies, in line with the OSCE human dimension commitments and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

Building sustainable and resilient societies for all is the theme of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Close co-operation and dialogue among various stakeholders, such as democratic institutions, disabled people’s organizations, academic institutions and women’s and youth rights organizations is crucial to ensure that persons with disabilities have an equal role and say in how our societies develop.

ODIHR has worked with parliaments, political parties and civil society organizations to promote the rights and political inclusion of persons with disabilities. This year ODIHR published a Handbook on Observing and Promoting the Electoral Participation of Persons with Disabilities, which takes account of the latest changes to international treaties and jurisprudence affecting them. The Handbook lays out a systematic methodology for observing the involvement of persons with disabilities in the election process and seeks to promote greater inclusion of persons with disabilities in political and public life.