The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: From the Perspective of Young People

Abstract

This article presents the views of four young disabled people from Sierra Leone, India, Liberia and Sri Lanka regarding what the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities means to them and the experiences that they had in promoting the Convention.  All of the four contributors are involved in Leonard Cheshire Disability's Young Voices project.  This project was initiated by Leonard Cheshire Disability during the negotiation of the UN Convention, which enabled disabled people from developing countries to make a direct contribution to the negotiation process, including attending the Ad Hoc Committee meeting in New York.  The long-term objective of the Young Voices project is to nurture and develop the skill of young disabled people in developing countries to become the future leaders of the disability movement.  The project is now embarking on its second stage, with disabled people receiving training on how to effectively lobby their Governments to sign and ratify the UN Convention as well as working with the media (including film making) in their own countries to raise the political profile of disability issues. Eighteen (18) young disabled people, one from each of the participating countries involved in Young Voices project, attended the conference jointly hosted by Leonard Cheshire Disability and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 19th - 22nd May 2008.  Further information regarding the conference can be found at http://www.lcint.org/?lid=4048