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9.
Conclusion: because I decided
“I hope this meeting of minds here in Addis will crystallize our resolve to communicate our compelling new agenda to the chattering classes of the world, to shake off the comfortable padding that insulates us from the pain and the injustice felt by those in real need. We have the hands, the hearts and, especially after this Convention, we have the mindset and the passion. And as we congregate here at the very birthplace of the human race, we lift our sightless eyes, we focus our dormant ears and we flex our disobedient legs, and with every fiber of our being we say with one united voice, oh yes, we can bring about a change.” – Amar Latif, Founder and Director, Traveleyes UK
“Vision is the act of seeing the invisible.” – Ephraim Segone, Young Voices Representative, South Africa
When Amar Latif, one of the conference’s closing panel speakers, became blind at the age of 20, he realized that disability was accompanied “by a couple of nasty sidekicks: inequality and lack of access.” Then he adopted what he called a “fght back strategy” in which he “began a new approach: to think in terms of what’s possible despite disability.” Now, he says, “I feel a growing responsibility, not just to make demands for action, but also to roll up my sleeves and get down to being part of the action.”
Mr. Latif’s words crystallize the resolve felt and strengthened at this conference: with the impetus of the new UN Convention, the time for action on disability, development and full human rights is upon us. “Finally,” added Ephraim Segone, the Young Voices closing speaker, “what we have begun in this conference becomes important when implemented after the conference, as it is outside where lives are at stake.”
In the words of Alexander Phiri, another closing speaker, “what are you going to do from here? The solution that I am proposing is that when you get back, before you expect the UN, before you expect our countries to do something about the Convention, why don’t you do it yourself? Do something about it, you can.”
This action, at its best, will both contribute to and support implementation. At this stage, said the closing speaker from UNECA, Thokozile Ruzvidzo, “The conference does not call for us to revisit the Convention. It does not call for changes in the Convention because… the Convention is solid. What it needs is implementation. So what the call for action calls for is: ratification, awareness raising, implementation, capacity building. It also calls for monitoring, it calls for partnership of governments, civil society, the UN agencies and the different institutions, not necessarily just institutions that are working on disability issues, because the issue of disability cuts across all the different areas that you are involved in.”
Young people have a particularly exciting role to play in this action, said Ephraim Segone. As the future of the disability movement, they can pressure governments to sign, ratify and implement the Convention. “If doors are not open for us,” said Mr. Segone, “fortunately we are still energetic and young, we can still take them down. We now have a call for action from this conference,” he said, “which is not called a ‘call for discussion’.”
Mr. Segone went on to say that we also need to enhance our efforts on awareness raising, especially in schools where accessibility and reasonable accommodation are not considered, and where teachers don’t know how to handle learners with disabilities. “We need to fight the good fight,” he continued, “not with fists and physical weapons, but through teaching, integrating and upholding the positive attitudes we have adopted to conquer the challenges brought by life with disability.”
Unity was another important rallying cry for Mr. Segone. Collective effort can accomplish more than any one individual, and unity, he asserted, has a power of its own. The conference itself was created by collective effort, and harnessing this will help implement both the Convention and the fresh thinking embodied in both it and the conference. “We have what it takes to turn things around. We need to be the change that we want to see. We are the voices that can speak on behalf of our brothers and sisters who travel with us in the same boat, one that is threatened by waves of ignorance and discrimination. We are the vessels overflowing, vessels filled with passion, determination, drive and action, and we have an assignment waiting for us. This road may not be an easy one, but I am confident that together we shall stand. I plead with all of you, brothers and sisters, to stand and be the voice of change.”
This can extend to partnerships between people with disabilities and organizations such as the UN, non-governmental organizations and other institutions, which can be catalysts for this kind of action, added Mr. Phiri. In addition to integrating disability into their programs, they can employ disabled people as consultants, on staff and as volunteers.
To forge this collective action requires individuals to work together. Amar Latif, for example, auditioned for a play in which the other actors were not disabled. When the director told him that his blindness meant he couldn’t possibly cope, “I decided he was wrong,” said Mr. Latif, and he not only got the part, but has worked as an actor since. Later, having experienced problems with air tour operators, he continued, “I decided to become one.”
For him, “The important phrase in all of this is ‘I decided’. The decision, like the responsibility, was mine. Fail or succeed, the buck can only stop with me. The crucial factor is always self-motivation. Self-motivation confers empowerment and empowerment confers independence. For me, as a blind person, independence is my most treasured possession and independence demands equal access… And, we don’t always need to follow in the footsteps of others. Disabled people can be the trailblazers in their own right.”
Adding her voice to this call, Thokozile Ruzvidzo told of her determination to bring the Convention to life by making the UNECA Conference Center truly accessible, inspired by the many trailblazers who attended this conference. “Your poetry and your humor,” she told Mr. Latif, “have challenged us to make the speakers’ podium, up to now inaccessible to wheelchair users, accessible to everyone.“
In the words of Mr. Latif, “We’ve all come together here, some of us blind, some of us sighted, some of us disabled and some of us able bodied, but we all share a joint passion and a united vision. We’ve come here from every corner of our incredible but frustratingly unequal world. We’ve come together to this breathtaking landmass that is mighty Africa. More specifically, we’ve come to the beating heart of this magnificent continent and even more specifically still, to this land that history tells us was almost certainly the birthplace of humanity.”
To those who were there and to those reading this report, may this conference be the birthplace of concerted action on implementing the UNCRPD and achieving full human rights for people with disabilities.