Policy and Campaigns

Campaigning globally for inclusive development

Leonard Cheshire Disability and our Global Alliance partners support people with disabilities in over 50 countries. Together we campaign to bring the voices and opinions of people with disabilities to the attention of policy makers and to put disability at the heart of international development programmes. This page introduces our policy and campaigns areas:

1. The UN Convention: An Opportunity to Push for Change
2. Young Voices: Opening the Door to Tomorrow’s Leaders
3. Edamat: A Toolkit for Mainstreaming Disability Policy
4. Inclusive Development
5. Our Campaigns Around the World
6. Global Alliance of our Partner Organisations
7. Global Campaign for Education

The UN Convention: An Opportunity to Push for Change

Over 130 countries have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first international human rights treaty of this century. The Convention became legally binding under international law on 3 May 2008. Governments around the world now must enact new laws to address the rights it contains. If effective, these new laws could bring about a sea change in the daily experience of people with disabilities around the world. Leonard Cheshire Disability now works with a range of partners around the world to make sure countries ratify and implement the Convention in a meaningful way.
Read More about the UN Convention.

Young Voices: Opening the Door to Tomorrow’s Leaders

Leonard Cheshire Disability - Sri Lanka

Working in 18 countries around the world, our Young Voices project helps groups of young people with disabilities explore how, by working together, they can use the Convention to fight for their rights. Under this project, groups of young people with disabilities actively advocate and campaign for their own rights in countries as diverse as Sri Lanka and Sudan. Together they build skills, ideas and networks for future leadership. In Sri Lanka, the Young Voices project organised a march through the streets of the capital and met with the Prime Minister. Read more about the Young Voices project here.

Edamat: A Toolkit for Mainstreaming Disability Policy

How do policy makers ensure that all of their decisions and plans address the needs of people with disabilities? How can campaigners check that government acts seriously on its promises to take disability into account in every policy area? The answer to both questions is the EDAMAT toolkit, which we developed with partners in other EU countries. This acclaimed tool is a practical help to anybody looking to benchmark the level of mainstreaming of disability in any policy area. Edamat is available in several languages. Read more about Edamat here.

Inclusive Development

In every country, people with disabilities are among the poorest. Traditional development programmes often fail to meet their needs, however, for example by building new schools that are not accessible. Leonard Cheshire Disability believes in an inclusive approach to development where the needs of all citizens experiencing poverty are addressed.

This inclusive approach to development should be integral to all international development programmes and all government development initiatives. Without a concerted effort to include the needs of people with disabilities, the Millennium Development Goals will not be met by 2015. Article 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities commits governments and the EU to organising their programmes in an inclusive way. Leonard Cheshire Disability successfully campaigned for this article and calls for agencies to put it into action.
Read More in Our Book, Disability and Inclusive Development

Our Campaigns Around the World

At any one time, our regional offices and Global Alliance partners are supporting campaigns and advocacy at local and national level. We will soon be adding detail of their work. In the meantime please contact the regional offices directly for more information.

Global Alliance of our Partner Organisations

The Global Alliance is a network of over 250 disability and development organisations in over 50 countries.

Global Campaign for Education

The Leonard Cheshire Disability Global Alliance has recently joined this global campaign. Membership will give us and our Cheshire partners the opportunity to raise awareness of access to education for children with disabilities within this high profile group. You can read more about this campaign at www.campaignforeducation.org and download their new report below.