TOWARDS INCLUSIVE CITIES: EXPERTS DISCUSS ONLINE THE SITUATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND OLDER PERSONS

Building on a previous expert meeting on human rights in inclusive cities, this second online conference – co-organized by the Geneva Human Rights Platform, UN-Habitat, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Geneva Cities Hub in partnership with the World Blind Union, World Enabled and the General Assembly of Partners – focused on persons with disabilities (PWD) and older persons at the city level.

During two days around 60 experts – representatives of organizations  of PWD, experts from United Nations (UN) and governmental agencies,  members of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) and the UN Special Rapporteur on persons with disabilities  – analysed existing challenges and barriers for PWD and older persons  in an urban context and made specific recommendations thereof. Where  possible, participants also identified specific actions and  interventions to incorporate into local policies.

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‘Persons with disabilities and older persons continue to face  barriers in their day to day activities and as such, there is an urgent  need to develop solutions that meet their needs and remove these  barriers’ underlines Kamelia Kemileva, Director a.i. of the Geneva  Cities Hub.

An Inclusive Online Meeting

‘Ensuring the accessibility of the online meeting to all was a key  imperative for us. As such, closed captioning, simultaneous  interpretation in three languages – French, English and Spanish – as  well as sign language interpretation were provided’ explains Felix Kirchmeier, Executive Director of the Geneva Human Rights Platform.

Towards Inclusive Cities for All

This meeting, financed by the Swedish International Development  Acency (SIDA) through UN Habitat, is the second of a series that aims at  developing operational documents to translate human rights standards at  the city level for local governments, city-level practitioners and  decision-makers, as well as national governments interested in local  governance issues.

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The next meeting, concluding this series, will focus on gender  aspects in cities. The outcome documents of these three conferences will  be available publicly at the end of the series.