AG/RES. 1356 (XXV-O/95)

SITUATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE AMERICAN HEMISPHERE

(Resolution adopted at the ninth plenary session, held on June 9, 1995)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

RECALLING:

Resolution AG/RES. 1296 (XXIV-O/94), "Situation of Persons with Disabilities in the American Hemisphere"; and

That, in 1990, the Pan American Sanitary Conference instructed the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (Resolution XV), as the specialized agency for health within the inter-American system, to continue its cooperative efforts with member states and with local and international organizations to develop programs and activities for the prevention of disabilities and full integration of the disabled into society and to obtain supplemental funds from multilateral and bilateral agencies to support national and regional programs on disability; and

CONSIDERING that, in Latin America and the Caribbean region, there are more than 60 million persons with disabilities who, together with their families, suffer from the lack of economic or social integration,

RESOLVES:
1. To urge the member states to cooperate in taking concrete actions to improve the health of disabled persons, to assimilate them into society with full exercise of their rights and duties, to identify risks which lead to disability, and to prevent disabilities.

2. To urge those member states that have not yet done so to advise the Permanent Council of any measures they may have taken to improve the situation of persons with disabilities.

3. To reiterate to the Permanent Council and the Secretary General that they should continue to coordinate strategies and programs with the Pan American Health Organization and the Inter-American Children's Institute in order to avoid duplication.

4. To instruct the Permanent Council to continue, through a working group, to study the matter of the draft Inter-American Convention for Elimination of Disability-Based Discrimination and to report to the General Assembly at its twenty-sixth regular session.