A new year always invites reflection – but this one carries particular weight.
We are living through a period of real challenge. Hard-won rights are being questioned and treated as optional extras. Inequality is widening. In too many places, people with intellectual disabilities are still excluded from education, healthcare, decision-making and community life. The promise of inclusion is far from fulfilled.
And yet December this year marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It’s an important moment to pause and ask: are we living up to the promise we made?
The CRPD set out a clear vision and a shared global commitment to dignity, equality and belonging – a world where people with disabilities are recognised equally as rights-holders, leaders and active participants in all aspects of society. That vision remains powerful and essential. But it needs renewed political will, accountability and action to fully bring it to life. The CRPD was never meant to sit on a shelf. It was meant to change lives.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the CRPD, we will spend the year highlighting what the Convention has made possible, and where change is still needed. Throughout the year, we will share blogs from our members focused on key parts of the Convention. These will look at:
- the right to live independently and be part of the community (Article 19),
- the right to inclusive education (Article 24),
- the right to be recognised before the law (Article 12),
- and the right to family life (Article 23).
Alongside this, we will share a video featuring disability advocates reflecting on 20 years of the CRPD, what it has changed, and what our movement is still fighting for. We’re excited for our members to come together to celebrate the CRPD over the year ahead.
At Inclusion International, I am constantly inspired by our member organisations across more than 100 countries – self-advocates, families and allies who continue to lead, organise and push for change, often in the most difficult contexts.
Their leadership reminds me that progress rarely moves in straight lines – but it does move when people come together, speak up and insist on being heard.
As we begin the year I am both determined and hopeful. Determined because exclusion is not inevitable – it is the result of choices, which can be challenged and changed. Hopeful because our global movement of self-advocates, families and allies continues to show what is possible when people organise, advocate and lead together.
This year, let’s move beyond reaffirming commitments – and focus on making rights real.