International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2019

Colombo, 9 December 2019: Commemorating International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) which falls on 3 December each year, an event was hosted within the UN Sri Lanka country office recently where UNDP launched a braille version of the Sustainable Development Goals to highlight the UN’s commitment of  ‘leaving no one behind’, by ensuring that all persons, including those with disabilities can contribute towards realizing the 2030 agenda.

The day which promotes the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society, focuses on the empowerment of persons with disabilities for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development as envisaged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which pledges to ‘leave no one behind’ and recognizes disability as a cross-cutting issue, to be considered in the implementation of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Under the 2019 IDPD theme of ‘Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda’, the event covered areas such as the legal framework around disability inclusion, women with disabilities and sensitization of UN staff to be more inclusive in our work on disability.

Speaking at the event, Robert Juhkam, Resident Representative of UNDP in Sri Lanka stated, “Taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda is key to our work. Globally, we are all in this together whether it be disability inclusion, the fight against gender-based violence or supporting legal frameworks. Our job as the UN is to advocate and propagate this agenda while leading by example to ensure that we leave no one behind.”

The half-day programme which was convened by UNDP in Sri Lanka was co-hosted by UN-Women and the Resident Coordinator’s Office and saw the participation of UN staff across all agencies with interactive sessions on disability sensitization and an interesting drama performance by a group of women with disabilities.

The Braille book would be used as an important knowledge product to help in our advocacy efforts and targeted inclusivity programme for persons with disabilities.

**Ends**