By IDA

 - September 11, 2018

Resolution Adopted at the 5th WFDB General Assembly

Refers to the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD), adopted on December 13th, 2006, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development and its Sustainable development goals(SDG), adopted September 25th, 2015, confirming all human rights as universal and therefore includes persons with deafblindness without limitations,

Express concern that deafblindness is still not universally recognised as a unique and distinct disability,

Claims that such a recognition is necessary to develop and establish universal support services that have been established for other groups of persons with disabilities,

Reiterates that the base support service needed by persons with deafblindness is a publicly funded professional Deafblind interpretation service,

Reminds that no full and equal inclusion and participation of persons with deafblindness is possible without access to Deafblind interpreting services,

Fears that persons with deafblindness will continue to be among the most marginalized and furthest left behind among other groups of persons with disabilities;

The 5th General Assembly of the World Federation of the deafblind,

  1. Urges UN State parties, Civil society and other to fully and universally recognize deafblindness as a unique and distinct disability,
  2. Recommends the process of developing a model for publicly funded professional Deafblind interpreting services to be started,
  3. Recommends UN state parties, the civil society and others to continue and further develop their funding for research and mapping of deafblindness,
  4. Recommends UN state parties, the civil society and others to provide funding to enable DPOs representing persons with deafblindness to establish the necessary technical support and assistance to fully participate in processes regarding themselves and their constituency,
  5. Will hold the UN state parties, civil society and others accountable by establishing a monitoring tool to report on the progress of inclusion of, and participation by persons with deafblindness in the implementation of the CRPD and the SDGs during the next period.

Read more about the World Federation of the Deafblind.