General News

UN Partnership to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Trust Fund (UNPRPD) Launched

New York: On 8 December 2011 six United Nations Organizations- ILO, OHCHR, UN-DESA, UNDP, UNICEF and WHO - established the UN Partnership to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Trust Fund(UNPRPD) to promote disability rights by assisting countries to improve their policies, data gathering and service delivery to persons with disabilities. The Launch of UNPRPD was co-hosted by Ambassador Quinlan of Australia and UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan.

The UNPRPD aims to facilitate dialogue between governments and disabled-people organizations in order to boost national action to address discrimination and marginalization. This is in line with the internationally-agreed UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ( http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml ), which also seeks to advance international cooperation on these issues

โ€œDisability affects vulnerable populations including women, children and the elderly in a disproportionate way,โ€ said UNDP Associate Administrator at the Launch of the Trust Fund. โ€œWe cannot achieve development goals โ€“ from health to education, employment to citizenโ€™s participation โ€“ unless we tackle disability as a driver of social exclusion.โ€

More than one billion people, representing about 15 percent of the worldโ€™s population, live with some form of disability, according to the World Report on Disability ( http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2011/disabilities_20110609/en/index.html ) published earlier this year by the WHO and the World Bank.

During the UNPRPD Launch, Ambassador Quinlan announced his Governmentโ€™s commitment of two million Australian Dollars to the Fund with more contributions expected in the future. Representatives from Sao Paulo (Brazil), Finland and Sweden also expressed the intention to contribute to the Fund.

The UNPRPD Trust Fund is administered by the UNDP Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF Office).

Photo: Ms. Rebeca Grynspan, Associate Administrator for UNDP, delivering opening remarks at the launch of the UNPRPD on 8 December 2011

Email from: Christine Walton, Executive Officer, Australian Disability and Development Consortium (ADDC)

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