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	Health inequities lead to diminished life expectancy for many persons with disabilities by World Health Organization (WHO), agencies   June 2024   Accelerating the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities, report from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs   Six years away from the deadline for the 2030 Agenda, the Disability and Development Report 2024 shows that persons with disabilities are being left behind. Progress for persons with disabilities on 30 per cent of targets of the SDGs is insufficient; on 14 per cent, the target has been missed or progress has stalled or gone into reverse.   These include targets on access to financial resources, health care, water and ICT as well as on building resilience of persons with disabilities during disasters and other emergencies. A mere 5 indicators are on track, i.e., with progress consistent with achieving their respective targets for persons with disabilities by 2030 – these include progress in education laws on equal access, disaster early warnings in accessible formats, online services for persons with disabilities, government ministries accessible for persons with disabilities and monitoring of bilateral aid dedicated to disability inclusion.   Wide gaps persist between persons with and without disabilities, particularly on food insecurity, health, access to energy and ICT – with gaps above 10 percentage points – and on multidimensional poverty and employment – with gaps above 20 percentage points.   For women with disabilities, indigenous persons with disabilities, persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities and persons with disabilities living in rural areas, the gaps are wider. Moreover, although countries have increasingly involved persons with disabilities in decision-making processes, overall, this involvement remains low.   The COVID-19 response was largely not inclusive of persons with disabilities, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, with discriminatory practices in COVID-19 treatment, lack of information in accessible formats and reduced access to COVID-19 testing (41 per cent of persons with disabilities versus 28 per cent of persons without disabilities did not have access to COVID-19 testing).   Half of COVID-19 deaths occurred among persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities lost jobs and income at higher rates than others. Early in the pandemic, a third of persons with disabilities lost access to personal assistance, assistive technology or accessibility services. Persons with disabilities faced more difficulties than others accessing and affording food, water delivery, energy, housing, health care, medicines, masks and sanitizers.   One in 5 students with disabilities dropped out of school during the pandemic and 9 in 10 did not have the ICT needed to participate in remote learning. Half of workers with disabilities faced barriers working remotely, such as inaccessible online platforms.   The isolation created by lockdowns increased the risk of violence, with a quarter of persons with disabilities experiencing violence at home and almost half of women with disabilities not feeling safe at home. Lockdowns disrupted data collections creating a lack of evidence to guide pandemic responses for persons with disabilities.   Not all countries introduced measures to support persons with disabilities to face these challenges. Only half of households with students with disabilities received financial support for the personal assistance and technology they needed for remote learning, less than half of countries targeted persons with disabilities in their COVID-19 social protection measures and only 10 per cent of countries conducted rapid emergency data collections on persons with disabilities during the pandemic.   Compared to the Disability and Development Report 2018, this time around there is more data on persons with disabilities – data availability is at its highest level since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Despite these advancements, only 50 per cent of targets have indicators with enough data to assess progress.   For 40 per cent of targets, there is only data to provide a one point in time snapshot. For 10 per cent of targets, there is not enough data for a one point in time snapshot – these include targets on extreme poverty, child mortality, health impact of pollution, early childhood development, child labour and the impact of corruption and bribery.   The way things are going, the world will not achieve the SDGs by, for and with persons with disabilities by 2030. Depending on the target, progress needs to accelerate to 2 to 65 times faster.   Accelerations are particularly needed in making physical and virtual environments accessible for persons with disabilities, in adopting anti-discrimination legislation, in expanding social protection and in implementing measures to guarantee the safety and protection of all persons with disabilities during disasters and emergencies.   As the international community prepares for the Summit of the Future in September 2024, all States need to step up progress to accelerate the SDGs and disability inclusion. The world needs to build on the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic to plan better for future crises.   The Disability and Development Report 2024 provides a snapshot of the current situation and progress made by goal/target and identifies concrete steps that global leaders and relevant stakeholders can take to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs by, for and with persons with disabilities.   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/disability-and-development-report-2024-accelerating-realization-sustainable-development-goals-and-persons-disabilities http://www.unsdsn.org/resources/the-sustainable-development-report-2024/   * Nick Herd, a disability rights activist reports from the 17th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities:   http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/06/1150786   Mar. 2023   Transformation of services for persons with disabilities - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Gerard Quinn.   There is a clear need to adopt a new philosophy to govern the design and delivery of support to persons with disabilities based on their moral agency, autonomy and social inclusion. States must transition away from service models based exclusively on impairment.   New kinds of partnerships are needed to realize this new philosophy. States must redefine the “public interest” and determine how to invest in and shape the provision of services. Support must shift from medically dominated systems that rely on coercion to support that is freely chosen.   Active consultation with persons with disabilities is therefore required, to determine what persons with disabilities need and want. The business sector must embrace its human rights responsibilities and become a partner for change.   Change requires a new lexicon that rejects labels such as “client”, “consumer” and “service user” and focuses on the core rights of citizenship.   Policy tools to manage change include supported decision-making models to create individualized support, peer support networks, independent living centres, standards for public procurement and contract compliance, competition law to create space for new market entrants, and new technology, including artificial intelligence.   The provision of support for families, collection of data on system performance, incentivization of new support providers, adoption of standards for service providers and enhancement of oversight and monitoring are likewise needed.   * Access the report: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/52/32   Dec. 2022   Health inequities lead to diminished life expectancy for many persons with disabilities   A new report by the World Health Organization shows evidence of a higher risk of premature death and illness among many persons with disabilities compared to others in the society.   The Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities shows that because of the systemic and persistent health inequities, many persons with disabilities face the risk of dying much earlier—even up to 20 years earlier—than persons without disabilities.   They have an increased risk of developing chronic conditions, with up to double the risk of asthma, depression, diabetes, obesity, oral diseases, and stroke. Many of the differences in health outcomes cannot be explained by the underlying health condition or impairment, but by avoidable, unfair and unjust factors.   Launched ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the report shows the number of people with significant disabilities worldwide has risen to 1.3 billion (or 1 in 6 people). This number reinforces the importance of achieving full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and embedding the principles of inclusion, accessibility and non-discrimination in the health sector.   The report stresses the need for urgent action to address the vast inequities in health caused by unjust and unfair factors within health systems. These factors—which account for many of the differences in health outcomes between persons with and without disabilities—could take the form of:   Negative attitudes of healthcare providers, health information in formats that cannot be understood, or difficulties accessing a health centre due to the physical environment, lack of transport or financial barriers.   “Health systems should be alleviating the challenges that people with disabilities face, not adding to them,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.   “This report shines a light on the inequities that people with disabilities face in trying to access the care they need. WHO is committed to supporting countries with the guidance and tools they need to ensure all people with disabilities have access to quality health services.”   With an estimated 80% of persons with disabilities living in low- and middle-income countries where health services are limited, addressing health inequities could be challenging. Yet even with limited resources, much can be achieved.   Recognizing that everyone has the same right to the highest attainable standard of health, the report provides important economic analysis of adopting a disability-inclusive approach. It shows investing in a disability-inclusive health sector is cost-effective.   The report outlines 40 actions across the health sector for governments to take, drawing on the latest evidence from academic studies as well as consultations with countries and civil society, including organizations representing persons with disabilities.   Ensuring health equity for persons with disabilities will also have wider benefits and can advance global health priorities in a number of ways.   Health equity for all is critical towards achieving universal health coverage; inclusive public health interventions that are administered equitably across different sectors can contribute to healthier populations; and advancing health equity for persons with disabilities is a central component in all efforts to protect everyone in health emergencies.   “Addressing health inequities for persons with disabilities benefits everyone,” said Dr Bente Mikkelsen, WHO Director for Noncommunicable Diseases. “Older persons, people with noncommunicable diseases, migrants and refugees, or other frequently unreached populations, can benefit from approaches that target the persistent challenges to disability inclusion in the health sector.”   “We urge governments, health partners and civil society to ensure all health sector actions are inclusive of persons with disabilities so that they can enjoy their right to the highest standard of health.”   http://www.who.int/news/item/02-12-2022-health-inequities-lead-to-early-death-in-many-persons-with-disabilities http://www.who.int/activities/global-report-on-health-equity-for-persons-with-disabilities http://www.hi.org/en/news/hi-has-contributed-to-the-who-report-on-health-equity-for-people-with-disabilities http://www.hi.org/en/news/index http://www.unicef-irc.org/children-with-disabilities http://bit.ly/3UmdENa http://www.ohchr.org/en/disabilities Visit the related web page
	Small-scale farmers and peasants feed around 70 per cent of the world by UN independent human rights experts (OHCHR)   Despite recognition that peasants and rural workers are essential to providing everyone food and protecting the planet’s biodiversity, the world has treated them as expendable, UN experts said today.   Ahead of the 17 December anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, the experts made the following statement:   “Four years ago, the UN General Assembly recognised the past, present and future contributions of peasants and rural workers to global food security, development and environmental conservation and adopted a ground-breaking Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas (UNDROP). Regrettably, they still lead a precarious existence.   While small-scale farmers and peasants feed around 70-80 per cent of the world, they shockingly represent 80 per cent of the world’s hungry and 70 per cent of those living in extreme poverty.   Besides their disproportionate exposure to environmental degradation, toxic substances, land grabbing and climate change, peasants and rural workers also suffer from the burdens caused by poverty, hunger and malnutrition.   More recently, their situation has become even more dire, due to the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its subsequent harmful impact on food and cost-of-living crisis.   We commend peasants and rural workers across the world who have shown great resilience in the face of multiple challenges and intersectional oppression facing them and their communities. However, world governments must do more to protect, support and listen to peasants and rural workers.   The Declaration on the Rights of Peasants is a call for justice, based on the culmination of grievances and struggles of the world’s peasantry. It is also a plan of action for governments to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of peasants while also effectively regulating transnational corporations to prevent harm. It provides a framework to enable a just and sustainable transition to a food system where biodiversity and human rights flourish.   The current global crises make it more urgent than ever to enact the commitments of the Decalaration and fulfill everyone’s human rights.   We have witnessed some commendable efforts to incorporate UNDROP provisions in national laws and policies, in what is a unique and unprecedented opportunity to redress various forms of discrimination, systematic violations and historical disadvantage that have affected peasants and rural workers for many decades.   We therefore urge States to show leadership and implement the UNDROP by incorporating its norms and standards into national laws and policies. We also call on the United Nations agencies to support and empower peasants and rural workers throughout their work, both at policy and operational levels.   The Declaration provides not only a recognition of peasants’ and rural workers’ rights and contributions, but it also serves as a roadmap for States, the UN, business enterprises and other stakeholders to take concrete actions on the ground.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/12/un-declaration-rights-peasants-un-experts-call-action-ahead-anniversary http://peasantjournal.org/news/working-paper-series-international-conference-on-global-land-grabbing-bogota-colombia/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2024.2317961 http://viacampesina.org/en/peasant-agriculture-a-key-element-in-the-fight-against-the-climate-crisis/   * UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants: http://bit.ly/3Ijpzau Visit the related web page
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