Bangladesh has called upon all countries of the world for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all development efforts for poverty elimination as well as the equalization of opportunities.
Golam Faruk Khandakar Prince, a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the call while delivering his statement at a High Level Panel Meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York on Friday.
The meeting was arranged to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), according to a message received here on Saturday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and president of UN General Assembly Peter Thomson made statements at the opening session of the High Level Meeting, while chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes moderated the session.
Prince said the rights and fundamental freedoms of people with disabilities featured as the priority policies of the present Bangladesh government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He said the general principles and obligations of the CRPD are similar to the general and fundamental principles and directives of the national constitution of Bangladesh which was envisioned by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“Bangladesh ratified CRPD as the 8th country,” Prince said. The government, he said, is implementing Integrated Disability Service Center since 2009 covering all districts, while a “one-stop mobile therapy service” has been introduced since December 2015 to deliver door-to-door therapy services of the peripheral persons with disabilities.
“The government has approved a comprehensive project to set up a separate Disablities Complex and Disabilities Sports Complex,” he said ? He also highlighted various exemplary initiatives taken by the Awami League led government under Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina such as construction of autism resource centres and hostels with full accessibilities for both male and female persons with disabilities.
Prince added that Bangladesh is known as one of the leading countries in promoting the rights of persons living with autism. “Saima Wazed Hossain, daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism in Bangladesh, has been playing a pioneering role in this area,” he said.
