“My Dream” - Cultural Performance by the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe

Ambassador Ma,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

A warm welcome to today’s cultural performance “My dream” by the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe. Thank you to Ambassador Ma and the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China for bringing this special event to the Palais des Nations.

Founded in 1987, the Performing Art Troupe has enthused audiences not only across China but around the world. It has already performed in 100 countries on five continents. Composed of more than 100 performers with sight, hearing, mental or motor disabilities, the dance group promotes self-respect, self-confidence, and self-reliance. The Troupe’s 29 staff, themselves living with disabilities, design the choreographies, train the performers and produce promotional material. Helping each other and using the complementarity of their skills has contributed significantly to their success.

The Troupe’s outstanding work has been recognized on many occasions. The President of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, Mr. Deng Pufang, who established the China Disabled People' Performing Arts Troupe, received the United Nations Prize for Human Rights in 2003. And the Troupe was designated UNESCO Artist for Peace to acknowledge its contribution to overcoming disability through music and performing arts in 2007.

The outstanding work of the performing arts ensemble stands symbolically for China’s efforts to better integrate people with disabilities and to encourage their participation in society. Considerable investments were made in upgrading infrastructure to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing as well as the 2010 Asian Para Games in Guangzhou. Much has been done since to raise public awareness and pursue more inclusive policies.

“My dream”, the name of tonight’s show, is about making dreams come true for people with disabilities, not only in China, but around the world. Often, it takes very little to adjust our environments to the needs of people with disabilities which could enable them to live just like everyone else and to fulfill their true potential. By adapting our environments and our mindsets, we create inclusive societies that, ultimately, benefit us all. My personal dream is that one day we will have the collective understanding that disability is not an exception or a deviation from the norm, but part of our daily life and a contribution to the enrichment of our diverse world.

Today, an estimated 15% of the world’s population live with a disability. One household in every four contains a disabled member which means that an estimated 2 billion people live with a disability on a daily basis. These households are often significantly poorer, with fewer resources and less support networks, than households without any disabled members.

When developing the Sustainable Development Goals, people with disabilities were at the table to make sure that their needs were integrated into the new framework. Disability is now referenced in multiple parts of the SDGs, in particular with regard to education, inclusive economic growth and employment, inequality, accessibility of human settlements, as well as data collection and monitoring. The 2030 Agenda is an expression of our consciousness that people are disabled by the society that surrounds them rather than by their bodies or diagnoses. Disability is not about the constraints faced by a person because of an individual impairment. It is much more about the lack of equitable access to resources such as education, employment, health care and social and legal support systems. If we dismantle those barriers we address the root causes for the higher rates of poverty among people with disabilities.

In acknowledging these interdependencies, the entering into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008 was a major milestone. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities monitors compliance of Member States with the Convention and I am proud that we are hosting their meetings here at the Palais des Nations. Their sessions also remind us that we need to do our part in making the Palais des Nations even more accessible for people with reduced mobility. This will be an essential element of the Strategic Heritage Plan and I am very grateful the People’s Republic of China for their continued support to the envisaged renovations.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Let us give a very warm welcome to the distinguished artists of the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe who will present to us an exquisite sample of their artistic talents. I wish to thank once more Ambassador Ma and the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China for contributing to this unique event to our cultural diplomacy programme.

Thank you all for joining tonight’s event and I wish you an excellent evening.