International Day of Disabled Persons 2020: Theme, History, and Importance of the Day of Persons with Disabilities

International Day of Persons with Disabilities or International Day of Disabled Persons is an international observance promoted by the United Nations since 1992 on 3rd December to empower a superior comprehension of individuals influenced by a disability, along with assisting with making individuals more aware of the rights, dignity, and welfare of disabled people.

This global campaign purposes improving the lives of disabled persons internationally remembering their nobility. It is additionally seen to make individuals aware of various types of disabilities and make the disabled people an active part of political, social, economic, and cultural life.

As well as raise awareness about the advantages of integrating disabled persons into every aspect of life, from economic, to political, to social and cultural. Disability Day isn’t worried solely with either mental or physical disabilities but instead envelops every known disability, from Autism to Down Syndrome to Multiple Sclerosis.

Celebrated on 3 December around the globe, IDPD mobilizes support for basic issues identifying with the consideration of persons with disabilities, promotes awareness-raising about disability issues, and draws attention to the advantages of an inclusive and available society for all. UN agencies, civil society associations, academic institutions, and the private sector are urged to help IDPD by teaming up with associations for individuals with disabilities to arrange events and activities.

The day expects to promote the rights and prosperity of people with disabilities in all spheres of society and improvement. This targets making society more aware of the political, social, economic, and cultural life of individuals with disabilities.

What is a disability?

The World Health Organization (WHO) perceives disability as a global public health problem, a human rights issue, and an improvement need. WHO perceives ‘disability’ as “an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions, denoting the negative aspects of the interaction between an individual (with a health condition) and that individual’s contextual (environmental and personal) factors. Disability is neither simply a biological nor a social phenomenon.”

International Day of People with Disability 2020 theme

The theme for International Day of People with Disability 2020 is “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 World”.

Every year the UN reports a theme to observe for International Day of People with Disability. The annual theme gives an overarching spotlight on how society can make progress toward inclusivity through the evacuation of physical, technological, and attitudinal barriers for people with disabilities. This has been happening since 1992 when the General Assembly declared 3 December as the International Day of Disabled Persons.

Individuals with disabilities are excessively influenced by the health, social and economic outcomes of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In this unique circumstance, the current year’s theme emphasizes the significance of strengthening our aggregate efforts for universal access to fundamental services, including quick health and social insurance, education, digital infrastructure, accessible data, employment, and other socio-cultural opportunities to guarantee that persons with disabilities are not given up in the midst of an emergency and beyond.

UNESCO will likewise organize a Global Awareness Raising Campaign “Tell our stories, enable our rights” on its official social media channels, focusing on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals living with disabilities and on the quick reaction to the emergency through open, inclusive and innovative use of digital solutions, tools, and resources.

International Day of Disabled Persons History

The annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons was declared in 1992 by United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3. It intends to promote the rights and prosperity of people with disabilities in all spheres of society and improvement and to build attention to the circumstance of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic, and cultural life.

Expanding on numerous decades of UN’s work in the field of disability, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), embraced in 2006, has additionally advanced the rights and prosperity of people with disabilities in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other international development systems, for example, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, the New Urban Agenda, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development.

This year, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) falls on the same week as the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 30 Nov.- 1 and 3 Dec. 2020 and will be noticed during the week related to the 13th session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD.

The event will incorporate delegates of the Member States, UN offices, associations of persons with disabilities, civil society, and the private sector. It will highlight the significance of disability-inclusive responses to COVID-19 and check out advancement in “building back better,” including tending to the global policy framework on disability-inclusive improvement recently adopted by the General Assembly Third Committee this previous November.

The event will likewise address the tools of the UN system. These incorporate hose produced for the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy, the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNWomen, and the World Bank. It will likewise focus on significant steps taken by civil society and the private sector to “build back better” in a disability-inclusive manner.