https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/blog/stakeholder-group-p...
The Summit of the Future is being called a ‘once-in-a-generation’ opportunity and has a two-fold aim: to accelerate efforts to meet existing international commitment and take concrete steps to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities. This will be achieved through an action-oriented outcome document called the Pact for the Future. The Permanent Mission of Germany and the Permanent Mission of Namibia to the United Nations are the co-facilitators for the negotiations for the Pact, which will contain a chapeau and five chapters: Sustainable Development and Financing for Development; International Peace and Security; Science, Technology and Innovation and Digital Cooperation; Youth and Future Generations; and Transforming Global Governance. The Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact - both parallel being negotiated in parallel tracks to the Pact, will be annexed to it.
The International Disability Alliance (IDA) together with the Stakeholder Group of Persons had provided written inputs under the chapeau and each chapter in December 2023 calling for retaining of the strong references to disability in the Political Declaration of the SDG Summit. In particular, the stand-alone reference to persons with disabilities in paragraph 14 of this Political Declaration, and the reference to the ‘disability-gap’ in education were strong commitments to ensure that persons with disabilities are an integral part of this ambitious agenda that will set the tone for future inclusive development frameworks.
It was therefore, with some disappointment that we noted that the Zero Draft of the Pact of the Future did not contain references to disability rights. The Stakeholder Group of Persons have flagged this oversight and have called for, among others:
- Retaining in the Pact of the Future the following language from paragraph 14 of the Political Declaration of the High-Level Forum on Sustainable Development adopted under the auspices of the General Assembly with the proposed new text as following:
Paragraph 20 (bis) We commit to ensuring that persons with disabilities actively participate in and equally benefit from sustainable development efforts.
- In paragraph 22: Adding a commitment to collecting disability-specific disaggregated data using recognized approaches to track the impact of development efforts accurately.
- In paragraphs 24, 58, 59, 103, 107: Recognizing the disability-gap in gender, youth, and education interventions.
- In paragraphs 25, 35, 38, 42: Adding explicit references to specific and targeted funding for persons with disabilities including in climate action and mitigation. Commit to a ‘do no harm’ principle by ensuring to not fund institutions and other segregated settings.
- In paragraphs 97, 98, 99: Recognizing the accessibility barriers to digital inclusion and commit to accelerating investment in accessibility, universal design, and access to assistive technology under social protection schemes.
- In paragraphs 55: Commit to strengthen implementation of UN Security Council resolution 2475 on the protection of persons with disabilities in conflict and develop a stand-alone agenda item covering ‘Disability peace and security’ at the UN Security Council
Full submission can be found here.
Also read:
SGPwD’s statement at the virtual consultation on February 21, 2024
SGPwD’s statement at the virtual consultation on February 12, 2024
SGPwD’s submission to the Political Declaration of the SDG Summit
