The next UN Disability Champion has been elected, Tuomo Puutiainen, ILO Country Director for Bangladesh, who will represent UN agencies in Bangladesh and coordinate the UN Disability Inclusion Task Team, which works to mainstream disability inclusion in the UN.
The team includes representatives from disability organisations, the Government of Bangladesh and other stakeholders, all working together to accelerate the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and ensure inclusiveness for persons with disabilities in all aspects of SDG implementation.
The Bangladesh government ratified the UNCRPD without any reservations in November 2007 and has since incorporated the convention into domestic laws, including the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2013 (RPPD), and promulgated regulations to protect the rights of persons with disabilities in 2015.
In addition, the government has established the Maitri Shilpa Fund to provide social assistance to unemployed physically disabled persons. Persons with disabilities can access employment through job fairs organized by the National Foundation for the Development of Disabled. The government has also established vocational training centres for the physically disabled.
However, much remains to be done to ensure the effective inclusion of people with disabilities in society and to implement the disability-related SDGs.
“One of the most important things is to address the prejudice that people with disabilities face every day so that they can be accepted as equal colleagues in the workplace,” said the ILO’s Tuomo Puutiainen in a video message marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. “We also need to ensure that people with disabilities have the right skills, education and opportunities for decent work.”
The UN Disability Inclusion Task Team works to make the UN in Bangladesh more inclusive for people with disabilities through human resource policies, programmes, projects and activities.
It will also serve as a platform for coordination, cross-pollination of ideas and sharing of resources to ensure coherence, coordination and comprehensive achievement of disability-inclusive outcomes under the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).