Responding to a growing movement: “African Youth with Disabilities: Raising our Voices for Inclusion”

The UN has proclaimed 2010-2011 as the International Year of Youth underscoring the importance of youth participation in addressing the world’s challenges. The African Youth with Disabilities: Raising our Voices for Inclusion, will respond to the growing youth with disabilities movement by providing a six-day gathering of 50 youth with disabilities that will facilitate learning, collaboration, and strategizing for a more inclusive Africa.

Youth deserve our full commitment—full access to education, adequate healthcare,employment opportunities, financial servicesand full participation in public life.

— UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

The United Nations has proclaimed August 12, 2010 to August 12, 2011 as the International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding, underscoring the importance of youth participation in addressing the world’s challenges. Youth with disabilities are an important sector of the youth movement and are more likely to be excluded from education, face discrimination when accessing health care or seeking employment opportunities, stripped of the right to make their own decisions, and excluded from participation in public life than their non-disabled peers.

While hundreds of activities have been organized around the globe to commemorate the International Year of Youth, few of these activities focus on youth with disabilities.

Organized by the Open Society Foundations’ Youth Initiative and Disability Rights Initiative, African Youth with Disabilities: Raising our Voices for Inclusion, will respond to the growing youth with disabilities movement on the African continent by providing a six-day gathering of 50 youth with disabilities that will facilitate learning, collaboration, and strategizing for a more inclusive Africa. The convening, scheduled for May 23rd to 29th in Nairobi, Kenya, aims to strengthen the African youth with disabilities network and develop partnerships that will help mobilize, empower and coordinate youth with disabilities’ initiatives.

A central focus of the Youth with Disabilities Convening will be exploring opportunities for youth activism and participation given the widespread ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) *. The convening will feature general training in the CRPD, as well as a more focused session on utilizing the CRPD’s monitoring mechanisms, including the parallel reporting process, the individual complaints mechanism under the Optional Protocol, and how to influence the list of issues raised by the CRPD Committee to a State Party under review.

The convening will facilitate peer to peer learning through country-specific presentations in which participants will describe national disability policies and any existing youth initiatives. Participants will also have the opportunity to present projects they are working on, discuss challenges to implementation, and provide feedback on strategies to overcoming obstacles. Skills development workshops, including debate training, new media workshops, and training in small scale enterprise development and NGO and project management, will facilitate the development of ideas that youth can implement both in their communities and on a regional level.

Registration is open to youth with disabilities, aged 18 to 30 years - download the application form here.

* The CRPD entered into force in May 2008; it has been signed by 147 countries and ratified by 99, making it the international treaty that has gained the most rapid and widespread adherence of any treaty to date.

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