Globally, persons with disabilities are among the most common and vulnerable groups. According to the World Health Organization data, people with disabilities account for 15% of the world’s total population, and more than one billion people subsist on some form of disability. Disability has been recognized as a human rights issue nowadays. The approach which considers the rights of persons with disabilities as an integral part of human rights law, and adopts the equal participation of these individuals with other individuals without discrimination in all areas of social life, guides national and international policies and practices.
It has become a globally accepted approach that “disability is a human rights issue” with the demands and rights-based struggles of persons with disabilities. In this respect, December 3 was declared as the "International Day of Persons with Disabilities" with the decision of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly dated 14 October 1992 and numbered 47/3, and a thematic area is determined within the framework of the rights of the people with disabilities annually. 2022 year’s theme has been determined as A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the first binding international document that is complementary to existing international human rights conventions and explicitly addresses disability. The Convention entered into force in our nation on October 28, 2009. Under favor of the Convention, the States Parties are obliged to ensure equality and non-discrimination with expressions "recognize that all persons are equal before and under the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law. 2. States Parties shall prohibit all discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantee to persons with disabilities equal and effective legal protection against discrimination on all grounds. 3. In order to promote equality and eliminate discrimination, States Parties shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided. 4. Specific measures which are necessary to accelerate or achieve de facto equality of persons with disabilities shall not be considered discrimination under the terms of the present Convention."
Similarly, in the second paragraph of Article 3 of the Law No. 6701 on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Türkiye, titled “Principle of Equality and Non-Discrimination", disability-based discrimination is strictly forbidden with the expression "It is prohibited under this Law to discriminate against persons based on the grounds of sex, race, colour, language, religion, belief, sect, philosophical or political opinion, ethnical origin, wealth, birth, marital status, health status, disability and age." With the Law as mentioned above, types of discrimination based on disability have been comprehensively regulated to serve the goal of raising the living standards of people with disabilities on an equal basis, worthy of human dignity, and realizing their personality based on human dignity.
Hereby, we wish for a world where discrimination based on disability has completely ended; the right of individuals with disabilities living independently and to be included in society can be implemented in all areas.
Respectfully announced to the public.