PHILIPPINE STATEMENT
Thank you, Mr. President.
The Philippines joins other States Parties to this Convention in affirming and advancing the rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities, protecting their dignity, and ensuring their full enjoyment of human rights and opportunities, and recognizing that they are, like those not disadvantaged, agents and beneficiaries of all aspects of development; and—in cases as rare as among the not disadvantaged—outstanding examples of human achievement as in the person of the late Stephen Hawking. A man or a woman is how she or he thinks, what he or she contributes to humanity by exceeding past human limitations, and not how she or he walks if they can.
Ten years ago, the Philippines ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the 23rd country to do so. Since then, we have sustained concerted efforts to include persons with disabilities in all state programs, including in poverty eradication, political participation, and gender and development, among others; knowing that accidents of birth and in life cannot, with courage and perseverance and the help of others, limit the human capacity for achievement.
We have ensured accessibility in all public places. We have established special education facilities, provided employment assistance to PWDs, given them access to free health care, and mandated local government units to involve persons with disabilities in the management of the Persons with Disability Affairs Office. No one can know them better than one facing the same challenge. Someone said that war is too important to be left to the generals; we have realized his mistake and now we say that war is too important to be left to civilians. So is it with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are issued a PWD ID card that gives them privileges and discounts in services and goods. The approach “Gender and Development with Disability Lens” is being utilized to integrate disabilities with gender issues, and implement it in empowerment programs for young women. The last Monday of March of every year is the Women with Disability Day in the Philippines, celebrated with awareness-raising activities to break common myths and misconceptions about disability; and to highlight the role of women with disabilities in development. We believe that we have gone a long way, but we aim to do more for and with persons with disabilities.
Together, we the United Nations have come a long way. We have experienced many gains but challenges remain. Among them, in the area of data and statistics. We support New Zealand in behalf of the Group of Friends of persons with disabilities and thereby reaffirm that data is critical to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals for persons with disabilities. We look forward to the release of the UN Flagship Report on disabilities this year.
Finally, we renew our commitment to continue the work, and to never put down the burden of human responsibility to give a shoulder to lean on to those who might otherwise be left behind, and thereby leave us poorer by the lack of their companionship in a journey we would not have undertaken without them. We are going all the way together or not at all.
Thank you. END