02 Jun 2013

If societies focused on what children with disabilities can achieve, rather than what they cannot do, such children and their communities would benefit, the UNICEF’s Annual State of the World’s Children’s Report has stated.

According to this report from UNICEF Botswana, “concentrating on the abilities and potential of children with disabilities would create benefits for society as a whole.”

Th report indicated that more efforts to support integration of children with disabilities would help tackle the discrimination that pushed them further into the margins of society.

The exclusion of many children with disabilities, the report noted, began in the first days of their life- with their birth going unregistered. This lack official recognition, the report said, cut children with disabilities off from the social services and legal protections that were crucial to their survival and prospects, adding that their marginalisation only increased with discrimination.

Furthermore, the State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with Disabilities, also stated that children with disabilities were the least likely to receive health care or go to school. 

“They are among the most vulnerable to violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect, particularly if they are hidden or put in institutions – as many are because of social stigma or the economic cost of raising them. 

The combined result was that children with disabilities were among the most marginalised people in the world,” it stated. Children living in poverty, the report said, were among the least likely to attend their local school or clinic, while those who lived in poverty and also had a disability were even less likely to do so.

It also said gender was a key factor, as girls with disabilities were less likely than boys to receive food and care. “Discrimination on the grounds of disability is a form of oppression,” the report said, noting that multiple deprivations led to even greater exclusion for many children with disabilities.

Few governments, as per the report, had a dependable guide for allocating resources to support and assist children with disabilities and their families, since there was little accurate data on the number of children with disabilities, what disabilities these children had and how disabilities affected their lives. 

Therefore, the report urged all governments to keep their promises to guarantee the equal rights of all their citizens including their most excluded and vulnerable children. It added that “about one third of the world’s countries have so far failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

However, the report said progress was being made towards the inclusion of children with disabilities, albeit unevenly, and the State of the World’s Children 2013 sets out an agenda for further action. ENDS