Recalling the mantra “nothing about us, without us”, which was coined by the disability rights movement, UN rights chief Volker Türk insisted that the international community was failing to uphold a fundamental tenet of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with regard to people with disabilities, namely that all people are born equal.
“In all regions, people with disabilities are discriminated against and dismissed; held back and held down; undervalued and undermined” – in particular women and girls, he said on Monday. “They are targeted and ignored.”
The High Commissioner for Human Rights also highlighted that for today’s online communities, cyberbullying “often means that no place is safe”.
Echoing that warning, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Heba Hagrass, noted that progress in disability rights has stalled or regressed for 14 per cent of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. A full 30 per cent showed insufficient change, according to the 2024 Disability and Development Report.
“The situation for women and girls with disabilities is even more dire, as they face compounded discrimination,” Ms. Hagrass told the Council, in her capacity as an independent rights expert, who like other Special Rapporteurs is not UN staff and does not receive a salary for her work.
Women and girls with disabilities are targets of gender-based discrimination as well as discrimination related to their disability, the rights expert continued.
“They are under-represented in education and employment and are at heightened risk of violence and abuse – particularly forced sterilization, domestic violence and sexual exploitation”, Ms. Hagrass said.
Social media: For better, for worse
Echoing the High Commissioner’s warning that internet has carved out a new space for cyberbullying and online hatred, disability rights advocate Nikki Lilly insisted that it could also be a “lifeline” for people with visible differences.
Ms. Lilly, 20, has been a regular online presence since the age of eight, after receiving a life-changing diagnosis of arteriovenous malformation affecting her face, two years earlier.
“It gave me connections which I could pursue from a hospital bed and took my mind off the realities I was facing,” she said of her campaigning work on social media, aimed at helping others who live with rare and complex medical conditions.
As a child, one in five comments targeted her appearance; some called her “a monster and a reason to use contraception”, she told the Council.
That figure rose “drastically” as she got older, Ms. Lilly continued, urging policymakers and companies to shield others like her from similar abuse.
She called on social media platforms to include people with disabilities in technology development and to implement faster report processes to filter content before “millions have already seen it”.
The problem lies not only with social media platforms, but with institutions too, Ms. Lilly reminded the Council’s 47 Member States.
As cutting-edge facial recognition tools break new ground, “technology is failing our community”, the digital creator and television presenter maintained.
Blocked from apps
This facial recognition software – often fails to recognize “the extreme social barriers” encountered by those with facial differences on a day-to-day level, she continued.
Such barriers include accessing banking apps, applying for jobs or obtaining identity documents, because facial-recognition technology does not recognize her face, she explained.
Ms. Lilly welcomed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and issued a direct appeal to Council members who “have the power to make the human rights of people with visible differences visible at last. This means investment in accessible digital systems which treat all faces equally, stronger platform accountability, and inclusive policies to ensure that everyone can contribute to society equitably. It is time that we are heard as well as seen.”
Assistive tech obstacles
Some assistive technologies are also designed by men, for men – leaving some women with prostheses designed for male bodies not working for women as well as they should, Mr. Türk highlighted.
Just one in 10 people with disabilities has access to adequate technology, according to research by the World Health Organization cited by Sanja Tarczay, president of the World Federation of the Deaf-Blind.
Such technologies “are not just simple tools”, said Ms. Tarczay. “They are facilitators and enablers of full participation and inclusion for persons with disabilities.”
Ms. Tarczay issued a stark reminder that “a world where persons with disabilities are fully included is not just a dream.”
“It is a responsibility we all share, and it is a reality we must commit to building together,” Ms. Tarczay insisted.
Climate finance a distant dream
Later at the Council, Member States addressed the equally urgent issue of developing countries held back from investing in climate resilience by crippling debt repayments.
Attiya Waris, Independent Expert On The Effects Of Foreign Debt, said that 61 countries are either in or are close to “debt distress…with little prospect of regaining sufficient fiscal space for climate investments”.
Global climate accords such as the 2015 Paris Agreement recognize that developed countries which contribute most to global warming should provide the bulk of financial assistance to support developing nations.
But despite the deal reached at UN climate change talks last November to triple finance to developing countries to $300 billion annually by 2035, “history has shown that commitments and pledges often fall short of the scale of needs”, Ms. Waris noted.
She underscored that $2.4 trillion is required annually to keep climate change goals on track, citing the Independent High-level Expert Group on Climate Finance which advises international meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
‘Debt distress’
In a new report mandated by the Human Rights Council, the independent expert said that approximately 3.3 billion people now live in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on education or health.
Ms. Waris, who is not a UN staff member and speaks in an independent capacity, cited World Bank estimates that developing countries spent $443.5 billion on external debt servicing in 2022.
Loss and damage from climate events cost the most climate vulnerable economies upwards of 20 per cent of gross domestic product, amounting to $525 billion over the last two decades, she continued.
Further data from 2022 indicated that lower-income countries were spending five times more on their external debt payments than on tackling climate change; that ratio rose to 12.5 times in 2023, according to the independent expert.
Across the African continent in 2024, countries which together contribute less than five per cent of global carbon emissions and whose economies run on average on 95 per cent clean energy already, are expected to pay $163 billion in debt service, Ms. Waris’s report indicates.
