Intervento della Ministra per le Disabilita’, Erika Stefani, alla 14ma Sessione della Conferenza degli Stati Parti della Convenzione ONU sui diritti delle persone con disabilità (CRPD) —
Dear colleagues,
it is an honor to speak today at this international gathering.
Italy is actively engaged in the promotion and protection of the rights of people with disabilities. As we know, the pandemic has brought to light many critical aspects of our welfare systems. The new phase we are experiencing today, that of restarting, obliges us to take stock of what has happened.
First of all, we need to invest more in “promotion” as the main tool for inclusion and, consequently, also for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.
At the same time, politicians, as well as all other stakeholders involved, must aim at consolidating disability mainstreaming: the society we aspire to does not need separate and special policies, but increasingly inclusive policies.
Attention to persons with disabilities transversally characterizes all the measures of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The individual project, for example, whose implementation and strengthening are provided for within the Plan, pursues, in fact, the aim of achieving the full integration of persons with disabilities through a comprehensive planning of interventions, in every dimension or sphere of living.
Our perspective aims at considering the person with a disability in its complexity and in a multidimensional vision, attentive not only to material “needs”, but also to existential, relational, emotional, educational and cultural needs.
In order to ensure that the interventions that we finance are inclusive, the Italian National Observatory on the Condition of Persons with Disabilities will monitor that the reforms proposed in the recovery and Resilience Plan are fully inclusive and non-discriminatory.
We have a moral duty to learn from the lessons of the pandemic and redouble our efforts to implement the UN Convention and build a more inclusive, more human-rights centered post-pandemic world.
Thank you for your attention and good work.
