DISCORSO PRONUNCIATO DAL VICE RAPPRESENTANTE PERMANENTE DELL’ITALIA PRESSO LE NAZIONI UNITE, AMBASCIATORE INIGO LAMBERTINI, ALL’EVENTO DELLA CONFERENZA DEGLI STATI PARTE ALLA CRPD: “SPORTS FOR INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND EMPOWERMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES” (10 giugno 2014) 

Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Permanent Mission of Italy is pleased to welcome you to this side event on “Sports for Inclusive Development and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities”, in conjunction with the Seventh Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

I thank Mr. Wilfried Lemke, Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Ms. Daniela Bas, Director of UN DESA-DSPD, my colleague, His Excellency Ambassador Carlos García, Permanent Representative of El Salvador, the panelists and discussants, and all of you for attending this meeting.

My country is deeply committed to promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities through the implementation of the CRPD. Italy was one of the first countries to sign the Convention and continues its remarkable work, along with the private sector and the academic world, to find brand new ways to spread knowledge and promote awareness on disability.

On Thursday, as you all know, the FIFA World Cup will kick off in Brazil. This is a very important sporting event. Sport, however, also consists of stories and performances which are less known to the public, but surely of no smaller importance.

The awesome stories of athletes with disabilities, such as Salvatore Cimmino and Zahra Nemati will remind us that sport breaks down physical and mental barriers, discrimination, and prejudice.
Mr. Cimmino is an Italian marathon swimmer who has been crossing the seas of the world for years to bring his passionate testimony of love for sport and life. His main goal is to increase awareness among nations about architectural barriers.
Ms. Nemati is a Paralympic archer of Iran. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she won two medals: one gold and one bronze. She then became the first female gold medalist in her country’s history, as well as the first Iranian to achieve such high honors in the Olympic or Paralympic Games.

Today’s meeting will bring us all to the deepest and most genuine values of sport. Sport is a silent but powerful tool for social inclusion, solidarity, and empowerment. Sport is a common language, a catalyst, and a social enabler in every corner of the world. Sport also has the power of empathy as it brings us closer to experiences, situations, and stories that we would not otherwise be able to relate to.

Today accessible and universally designed technologies help to empower people with disabilities much more effectively than in the past. That is why we have a special responsibility to call for actions to make the international development agenda more inclusive of disability issues, including the right to sport for persons with disabilities.

I hope that, by listening to these stories today, we can find renewed inspiration to contribute to the ongoing global efforts promoting disability-inclusive development goals towards 2015 and beyond.


Thank you.