We are different but equal

As prepared for delivery

Dear Mr. Kestutis Jankauskas, EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan

Dear Mr. Edward Carwardine, UNICEF Representative

My UN colleagues,

Dear Jamil Aliyev, Deputy Chairman of the "Regional Development" Public Union

Representatives of media,

Khanimlar ve jenablar, salam!

Globally, we often see that people with disabilities face discrimination, experience deprivation and are denied access to education, health care and opportunities to participate in public life. Yet lets’ not forget that today close to 1.5 billion people living with disabilities constitute the world’s largest minority.

The international community, including UNDP, has been championing the commitment to leaving no one behind in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, affirming the fundamental role people with disabilities play in building inclusive societies for all. In fact, this year’s theme for 3 December International Day of People Living with Disabilities focused on empowering persons with disabilities for an inclusive, equitable and sustainable development as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Governments, persons with disabilities and their representative organisations, academic institutions, the private sector and media need to work as a “team” to achieve the SDGs. AS UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner says, ensuring that people with disabilities equally participate in all spheres of life is our collective responsibility, but also something each one of us in the room can commit to.

As UNDP, we are working in countries around the world, also throughout Europe and the CIS region to support disability inclusion. We are taking forward a number of initiatives within UNDP to help reduce barriers and foster an enabling environment for the employment, retention, and closer collaboration with persons with disabilities. As our flagship initiative, UNDP supports active labour market measures for people with disabilities in a number of countries and looks forward to doing it in Azerbaijan in close cooperation with the Government. In 2019 specifically, UNDP will have a particular focus on people with disabilities across all of its programmes.

Currently, we are implementing an EU funded project on Promoting Inclusive Education through Traditional Arts in Azerbaijan. In partnership with the Administration of the historic Old City (Icheri Sheher), UNDP is working on the creation of Inclusive Education and Training Centre under the Centre for Traditional Arts (ICTA). Once opened, this new facility will be made available and accessible to people with disabilities and will work directly with this group to help them develop competitive competencies, which respond to current labour market needs. At this center the youth with and without disabilities will participate in inclusive vocational arts and crafts programs together.

We believe that through this project we will be able to also demonstrate to the broader society the benefits of the inclusion process, pretty much similar to the personal stories of people featured in the documentary that we will watch shortly afterwards.

What we want to pursue through our joint project is to ensure that people with disabilities participate in different activities and learning platforms together, hand-in-hand, with their peers who do not have any kind of disability and exercise this sense of togetherness in an organic and healthy way. In this spirit, people with and without disability share together, exchange their experiences and ideas and share their emotions without a fear of prejudice or stigma. This way –and only if we work together as a team –we can break existing stereotypes and perception about people with disabilities and can actually succeed in making a shift in the mindset of people. Isolating people with special needs in special schools and preventing them from going to school with other people who may or may not have a disability, not letting them all sit in the same classrooms and share the same office space afterwards is not the way forward. This will not work!  

On this day, let’s commit to working together to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access and voice in society, and can realise their fullest possible potential. And by “working together”, I mean a close cooperation with media, bloggers, influencers –most of them already gathered in this room now. No one else is in a better position than you to get these messages to folks out there, near and far. Media plays a crucial role in raising awareness on matters of societal importance, such as disability rights, empathy and inclusivity and we trust you will be on our side to raise awareness about these important issues along the way. In fact, ASAN Radio’s taking the lead on the production of this new short film on disability and inclusion is itself the reflection of genuine interest and devotion to some of the world’s most burning challenges –and we thank you for that! To every representative of the media in this room I want to say a big ‘thank you’ for your interest in getting the stories of most vulnerable people, with whom and for whom we work, to the broader public. Chox sag olun! Teshekkur edirem!