Following is the message of the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), on the occasion of the International Day of Disabled Persons, which is observed 3 December: This is the fifth time that the international community marks the International Day of Disabled Persons, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1992 upon completion of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons (1983- 1992).
Over the past years, we have witnessed progress in furthering public awareness and enacting measures to improve the situation of people with disabilities. United Nations actions have highlighted the importance of developing and carrying out concrete, long-term strategies for full implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning disabled persons beyond the Decade, with the aim of achieving a society for all by the year 2010. The Member States, in conjunction with the United Nations, have undertaken concrete steps to elaborate programmes on disability that would make a shift from raising awareness to action, thus providing disabled people with equal opportunities and aiming at their full integration into society.
The theme of this year's observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons is "arts, sports and disabilities". The arts and sports are the areas where people with disabilities display their remarkable perseverance, talent and energy and make an impressive and lasting contribution towards human cultural heritage and sports achievements. Participation in the arts and sports affords persons with disabilities and important means for taking their place as full-fledged citizens. It serves the dual purpose of enhancing their self-esteem and contributing to positive transformations in public attitudes.
On occasions like this we should not only think of what has been achieved, but of what needs to be accomplished to remove all barriers and obstacles that deprive disabled persons of their full and active participation in the functioning of society. In this context, I recall the words of sociologist Charles Horton Cooley, who once said: "The chief misery of the decline of the faculties, and a main cause of the irritability that often goes with it, is evidently the isolation, the lack of customary appreciation and influence, which only the rarest tact and thoughtfulness on the part of others can alleviate".
Let us, then, join our efforts to make sure that the proclaimed goal of the full integration of persons with disabilities into society becomes a reality. * *** *
