A new piece of legislation introduced by this government aims to protect children from adult sexual predators.

Each year on December 3, we celebrate the United Nations International Day of Disabled Persons.

This day of commemoration was established in 1992 upon the conclusion of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons. It serves to promote an awareness of disability issues, the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities, and integration of persons with disabilities into mainstream social, economic, political and cultural communities.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 1981 the International Year of Disabled Persons to further the goal of achieving full and equal human rights and recognize the contributions in society by disabled persons.

The year and subsequent decade aimed to enhance public awareness, knowledge, and acceptance of disabled persons, and enable persons with disabilities to build organizations through which they can manifest their views and promote activities to improve their conditions.

The World Health Organization reports almost ten percent of the global population – 600 million people – is living with a disability.

Disabled individuals face many barriers to full social and economic participation in society. For this reason, up to 20 percent of those living below the poverty line in developing nations are disabled.

This year, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has called upon all nations to revise their laws, practices and conventions to reflect the ideals put forth in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This is a call to end discrimination for all disabled persons and the right to act as a basic and fundamental virtue for every person throughout the world.

On December 3, those in power will be encouraged to conduct discussions and campaigns promoting the right to act, ensure legislation provides disabled people the right to select assistance through their own free will, revise policy to allow for persons with disabilities of any kind to open and handle bank accounts, and taking measures to extinguish the guardianship method and replace it with a process that allows persons with disabilities to be assisted in their own decision-making.

Disabled persons have so much to contribute here in Canada and all over the world. It is imperative that we all do what we can to provide them full and equal access to the rights and freedoms the rest of us enjoy.

Join me on December 3 in celebrating those strong individuals who use their disabilities to aide them in living full and productive lives.

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