GPC Statement on 2021 International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The Global Protection Cluster joins persons with disabilities around the world today in celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The Global Protection Cluster recognises the specific protection risks and barriers to safety and essential services faced by persons with disabilities in times of humanitarian crises including armed conflict, climate change related and natural disaster.

Persons with disabilities experience barriers in crises differently, at a minimum, dependent on age and according to their sex and gender. Therefore, the GPC commits to working alongside all those affected, to strengthen protection outcomes and promote inclusive humanitarian responses around the world.

Inclusion is core to the GPC’s 2020-2024 Strategic Framework, and hence we are committed to ensuring consistent and predictable representation of the issues that impact boys and girls, women and men with disabilities, so that they can be addressed by relevant responsible parties.

The GPC advocates that persons with disabilities, as rights holders, should sit at the centre of humanitarian response planning and is working to enable those affected to participate in decision making which impacts them. This includes promoting meaningful participation across the HPC, removal of barriers, enabling opportunities to develop their skills and capacities and to promote gender, age, and disability disaggregated data across sectors.

The GPC celebrates the advancements in disability disaggregated data in humanitarian contexts made in recent times which have enabled a nuanced understanding of individual and household level barriers and subsequent vulnerabilities in times of crisis. These serve as a fundamental base from which the GPC will build on with vigorous ambition in order to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind.