Promoting the rights of Children with disabilities innocenti digest no

millennium development goals
We will have time to reach the Millennium Devel-
opment Goals – worldwide and in most, or even 
all, individual countries – but only if we break 
with business as usual. Success will require sus-
tained action across the entire decade between 
now and the deadline. It takes time to train the 
teachers, nurses and engineers; to build the 
roads, schools and hospitals; to grow the small 
and large businesses able to create the jobs and 
income needed. So we must start now. And we 
must more than double global development as-
sistance over the next few years. Nothing less 
will help to achieve the Goals.
26
(Kofi A. Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, 
1997−2006)
The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) (see 
box 4.3) represent a crucial inclusive framework for 
advancing the human rights and the quality of life of 
persons with disabilities and their families.
Despite the omission of specific reference to per-
sons with disabilities in the 18 targets for 2015 or 
the 48 monitoring indicators of the MDG framework, 
recognition has nonetheless been given to their 
needs.
27
An international effort is now underway for 
the explicit inclusion of a disability dimension into the 
five-year reviews of MDG achievement.
28
However, 
concerns remain over the ability to translate interna-
tional goals into reality, as expressed, for example, by 
a disability and development worker in India:
In the South Asian context, the MDGs look like 
stars and moon up in the sky. Most of the goals 
in the past have failed to move beyond mere 
catchy slogans – Education for All, Health for All, 
Hunger Free Society are mere slogans. One of 
the reasons is that these goals still need to come 
from the heart of local policy makers. Are they 
really committed? Do they see people as valued 
human beings rather than mere targets and ben-
eficiaries? Absence of political will is the single 
most important problem.
29
(Indumathi Rao)
Tangible evidence is required that the needs of 
persons with disabilities are explicitly included 
in UN initiatives, including in the light of the new 
Convention. 
There is a wide basis of agreement on the principles 
and values that should inform international as well 
as national programmes for the advancement of 
the human rights of persons with disabilities. There 
is also ample guidance in the UN Standard Rules 
on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons 
with Disabilities for the translation of principles into 
practice in specific domains such as education, 
health and employment, as well as many examples 
of countries and communities in all parts of the world 
that have overcome obstacles to the inclusion of 
children with disabilities in their local schools and 
neighbourhoods. The UN has also commissioned a 
detailed toolkit on inclusive planning that includes 
specific procedures to ensure the incorporation of a 
disability dimension in all development planning 
and monitoring.
30
All too often missing, however, is the political 
will to ensure that persons with disabilities are 
automatically and explicitly included in development 
programmes from the outset, rather than added as 
an afterthought or, as so often happens, overlooked 
and further marginalized. 
The chapter that follows summarizes evidence for 
the urgency of this challenge and underlines the 
importance of making the fullest possible use of the 
opportunities now available to end the neglect of 
persons with disabilities in all regions of the world. 
Box 4.3 Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) form a blueprint agreed to by all the 
world’s countries and leading development institutions for the year 2015.
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

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14
Innocenti Digest No. 13
Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
The daily reality of life for children with disabilities 
and their families is frequently one of discrimination 
and exclusion, in all countries of the world. The dis-
crimination they endure can be direct, indirect, or a 
combination of the two. Direct discrimination takes 
place when a child with a disability is deliberately 
treated differently from a child without a disability, on 
the basis of his or her impairment. Indirect discrimi-
nation occurs when practices or policies that do not 
immediately appear to discriminate against children 
with disabilities actually have a discriminatory impact 
in practice, resulting in the denial of certain human 
rights.
31
Indirect discrimination may be unintentional, 
but its effects can be no less damaging than those of 
direct discrimination.