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World Landmine News
Her Majesty Queen Noor Keynote Address at World Bank Conference: Disability and Development
December 3, 2002
Washington, DC
We are very grateful to the World Bank-in particular to President Wolfensohn and Judy Heumann--for hosting this unprecedented conference on Disability and Development. This gathering represents a diverse community with a wealth of expertise. I believe we have the potential, together, to contribute to a more accessible and inclusive world--one that is ultimately more secure and peaceful because it benefits from the productive potential of every human being.
Today, the International Day of Disabled Persons, also marks the fifth anniversary of the International Landmine Ban Treaty. For over 25 years, I have witnessed the heartbreaking ordeal of those striving to overcome the devastation of their bodies, their lives and their families in rural Jordan, and throughout the Middle East.
During the past five years, I have worked closely with the Landmine Survivors Network and the ICBL in the global battle against this scourge, building on the progress made by the international coalition that brought Mine Ban Treaty into international law in record time--- the first international arms treaty to encompass humanitarian obligations to the weapons' victims around the world. Many of our fellow activists were themselves disabled, working with fierce and noble determination to spare others the suffering they endured, or to ease the suffering of other mine victims. What better example of the productive power of people with disabilities?
Still, someone steps on a landmine approximately every twenty-two minutes. Tens of millions of mines are buried in over eighty countries. This subterranean terror holds individuals, communities, and entire nations hostage. I have met hundreds of landmine survivors who are struggling to heal, recover and reclaim their lives in Southeast Asia, the Balkans, the Middle East, and South America-- beautiful yet scarred parents, young people and small children in despair in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, if they're lucky. . . all of them wondering what kind of lives they will have after their wounds have healed. Who will care for them? Who will love them? How will they survive?
Landmines destroy resources, both human and material, and removing the mines and rectifying their consequences is absolutely essential to the recovery of any war-torn community. Landmines seriously hinder humanitarian aid programs, economic reconstruction, and the internal movement and resettlement of refugees.
The wasted potential, especially in human terms, is hard to quantify, but in the productive use of land there are a few illuminating figures: a recent study in Afghanistan by the UNDP and the World Bank found that every dollar spent in mine action yields $4.60 in restored productivity. Clearing one square kilometer of land can garner from $2,000 per year for grazing land to up to half a million dollars for fertile farmland. Fifty kilometers of cleared road can produce $250,000 in economic benefit.
If mine action can yield such returns on land, how much more can accrue from treating the people most affected not as burdens, but as human beings with contributions to make?
It is unconscionable that disability compounds the misery of millions of the poorest of the poor. The World Bank reports that, in developing countries, 82% of the disabled live below the poverty line, most on less than a dollar a day. Poverty and disability are a fearsome combination that can crush aspiration in individuals, and place heavy burdens on families, communities, and national economies.
Again, figures are hard to come by, but I have seen it myself: a disabled person, given treatment, training and opportunity, can be the mainstay of a family, a productive worker, and a vibrant member, even a leader, of a community.
Unfortunately, persons with disability throughout the world are commonly treated as liabilities, rather than the assets they are.
98% of disabled children in the developing world are denied formal education, and only 1% of deaf children are ever taught sign language.
The literacy rate for women with disabilities is less than 5%. Women with disabilities have almost no chance for economic independence. Fewer than 25% are employed and paid any kind of a salary.
Because data on disability is weak, statistics do not fully communicate the indignities and wasted potential. But personal testimony exposes a global pattern.
An Afghan father, a refugee, carried his son on his back to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan. His son had been tending sheep and stepped on a landmine. He lost his sight, a hand and both legs. The Director of the hospital dismissed him out of hand: "Why should we waste our time on this boy? He is worthless." The father angrily replied, 'I carried my boy on my back from Kabul. It took two weeks. How dare you tell me that he is rubbish to be thrown away!"
A blind girl in Senegal was refused permission to inherit her parents' farm because local custom did not permit blind people to inherit property. Rather than an economic stakeholder, she now feels condemned to a life of dependency on others.
Jesús Martinez, the Director of Landmine Survivors Network in El Salvador, is here with us today. He stepped on a landmine and lost both his legs in the explosion. Lying on the ground in a pool of blood, Jesús crawled to an unexploded grenade a few feet away. He tried to detonate the weapon by slamming it against his body. At the time, he thought he would rather die than live without legs. Thank goodness he failed. He is now helping other amputees in job training and rights education programs. He lost his legs, but discovered a new potential. His life is not wasted, but rich.
So much is lost when persons with disability are tossed aside. Everyone's talents, everyone's ideas, and everyone's energies are needed in this interdependent world. In the twenty-first century, we cannot afford to dismiss the potential and possibilities of almost 10% of the world.
The late civil and disability rights activist Justin Dart put it in the strongest terms: "We must create a culture that guarantees*food, housing, education, healthcare, jobs, recreation, and of course full civil rights to all" - what he called "a revolution of individual empowerment."
These words challenge us all to promote social and economic parity, and to ensure equal rights and full participation of people with disabilities. How can the World Bank, the United Nations, governments, civil society, and each of us in this room bring about such a revolution? We must counter prejudice and discrimination with resolve, and especially, with resources.
President Wolfensohn, it is my hope that you, your governing board and staff will continue to implement the recommendations of the Canadian study on "Inclusion and Disability in World Bank Activities." Under your leadership, the World Bank can indeed make a world of difference:
First, Accessibility - You could require that grantees and loan recipients build and reconstruct public space with wheelchair ramps, curb cuts, and designs that are accessible to all. This goes for hospitals, office space, schools, recreation and cultural centers. The World Bank can also develop guidelines for making information more accessible, using alternate formats such as Braille.
Second, Inclusion - International agencies should consult and hire people with disabilities at all stages of planning, programming and implementation. Hiring and promoting a leader like Judy Heumann at the World Bank is an encouraging step in the right direction.
Third, Lending - Aid and finance without discrimination are crucial. The World Bank needs to target and include persons with disability in lending and all poverty eradication efforts. Otherwise, we will make little progress in improving the livelihood of hundreds of millions of impoverished families.
Fourth, Monitoring - the World Bank and other NGOs should use every power at their disposal to ensure that current initiatives are being followed. Socio-economic reintegration programs exist in fewer than half the countries where there are landmine survivors, for example, and even in those countries with programs, they tend to be implemented in the cities, when the majority of those in need live in rural areas. NGOs are often more effective than governments at assessing and meeting needs at the grassroots level.
For too long people who look or hear or move differently have been relegated to the perimeter of mainstream society. If you stop to think about it, persons with disabilities along with their families comprise nearly half the planet. If you add the economic consequences of their lost potential, it is clear that discrimination against these people hurts us all. Full participation in society will be achieved not by "fixing" disabled people, according to some traditional medical model. Instead, we must begin to see them not as broken people, but as the beautiful, capable and contributing individuals they are.
There are international conventions on the rights of women and of children.
However, there is no Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. And fewer than 25% of the countries of the 189 UN Member States have any form of anti-discrimination law on the books. A UN Convention must be created to protect and promote the dignity and rights of people with disabilities.
We applaud the leadership of Ecuador, Ireland, Mexico and Jordan on this issue. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the new High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello agree that "disability is in the human rights framework," and that social and economic development is key. I also wish to commend Bengt Lindqvist's invaluable work as the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability.
My friend Nelson Mandela once observed of his disabled friends in prison, that they were both "Barred In and Barred Out." In other words, the confinement of prison walls is not the only kind of exclusion they faced. True freedom means not only freedom from oppression and imprisonment, but freedom to pursue one's dreams - and to give others the benefit of them. Everyone has an equal right to dream, and everyone deserves an opportunity to fulfill those dreams.
But if fundamental justice or freedom are not enough, there is a more pragmatic argument.
Enabling disabled people to fulfill their potential frees whole communities to be more productive, and boosts development. Denied hope, they are condemned to dependency. But allowed to seize possibility, they can strengthen recovery - their own, their country's and the world's.
As long as there is ground rendered useless-and more importantly, as long as there are people perceived as useless-there can be no recovery, no development, and no peace.
Thank you again, President Wolfensohn and the World Bank, for welcoming today's discussion of Disability and Development. I believe we can help build a truly accessible and inclusive society, where we all participate fully, and freely, together.
Posted: Tuesday, December 3, 2002
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