Every year on 3 December, the international community comes together to raise awareness on the rights of persons with disabilities. This year, OHCHR in partnership with artist photographer, Christian Tasso, will hold an exhibition entitled “FifteenPercent” to be opened on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The exhibition will serve as a platform to bring together civil society organizations, missions, and the UN family to celebrate diversity and promote the human rights-based approach to disability on 3 December, #ADay4All. It is also an occasion to link this celebration with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 2018) to reflect the universal, indivisible, interrelated and interdependent nature of human rights, echoed also within the commitment of the Sustainable Development Goals to leave no one behind.
The FifteenPercent Project
In 2015, the artist photographer, Christian Tasso, launched "FifteenPercent", which documents the lives of persons with disabilities around the world. It is entitled “FifteenPercent” because this is the proportion of the world’s population which is made up of persons with disabilities as estimated by the World Bank and World Health Organization. Tasso’s work aims at deconstructing common approaches to persons with disabilities, particularly in communications, as “objects of charity” or as “superheroes”. The photos present persons with disabilities in their own communities and families, as workers, business owners, parents, sons and daughters, teachers and students, religious leaders and believers, among other roles. Every frame of the project is centered on the individual story of the and in which disability is one element among their intersecting identities. FifteenPercent seeks to raise awareness and understanding that our communities are ever enriched by the diversity of its members, be they persons with disabilities, women, youth, older persons, and all other groups, and that our communities can only be strengthened by ensuring the inclusion of each of its members. Each image embodies and expresses the vision of inclusion of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The project is thus both a celebration of difference and a call to embrace diversity as part and parcel of humanity.
The exhibition consists of 50 large format fine art prints and a video installation. The stories that compose the work derive from: Italy, Ecuador, Romania, Nepal, Germany, Albania, Cuba, Mongolia, India, Kenya, and Cambodia.
A key feature of the exhibition is to ensure accessibility for visitors in terms of information and communications, as well as physical and environmental accessibility.
Registration for the event: https://reg.unog.ch/event/27360/
Venue: Palais des Nations, 3rd Floor, Building A, Salles des pas perdus
Date: Starts 3 December 2018 at 09:00, Ends 10 December 2018 at 18:00
The event is organised by OHCHR in partnership with Christian Tasso. The event and exhibition are also supported by: the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Disability and Accessibility, the International Disability Alliance (IDA), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the ICRC MoveAbility Foundation, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention Implementation Support Unit and the Permanent Missions to the United Nations in Geneva of: Australia, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Finland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, New Zealand, Finland, Portugal and Turkey.
The audio descriptions have been translated into so many languages thanks to the support of the UN Volunteers: Alice Ratier, Morgane Hervier, Landy Tianxuan Liu, Aswan Tai, Elena McDonnell, Daria Khliustova, Lucía Álvarez, Nahuel Martino, Tarek Fakhereddin and Soumeya Berghout Boulares. Thanks also to the contributions of colleagues and friends: Bidniy Sergey, Elena Perazzato, Emily Wai Ying Fung of Chosen Power (People First Hong Kong), Michele Lai Kwan of the Human Commons and Chine Chan, Ola Abu Alghaib, Manel Mhiri, Janina Arsenjeva, Juan Ignacio Perez Bello, Virginia Lee, Mathieu Schreiber, Saskia Schreiber, Lorelei Schreiber, Manel Mhiri, Benôit Perrin, Natacha Montenegro, Se Young An, Jelena Zidov, Sumrana Yasmin, and the UN Events team.
Downloads:
-> Flyer of the exhibition - FifteenPercent project by Christian Tasso (, pdf, 744.55 KB)
-> Event invitation - 3rd December 2018 (English, pdf, 612.62 KB)
Christian Tasso is an independent artist and photographer. For further information on the artist, please see his portfolio at:
https://www.instagram.com/christiantassophotography/
For further information on the project, please visit: