Our Minister of Family and Social Services Derya Yanık shared National Statement of Türkiye by participating in the 15th session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ECHR) via video message.

The 15th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has started. The Minister of Family and Social Services, Yanık, attended the general session of the conference, which was held with the main theme of " Building Disability-Inclusive And Participatory Societies In The COVID Context And Beyond " this year, via video message.

Sharing National Statement of Türkiye in her video message, Yanık stated:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges in all spheres of life and we know that people with disabilities were among the hardest hit. Despite the pandemic, Türkiye continued to take important steps in terms of both policy making and implementation of policies within the framework of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2030 Agenda with a disability-inclusive approach. Acting with the vision of a society that does not leave anyone behind, Türkiye prioritizes every individual as the essential element of social development. We create our policies and services with a human rights-based approach in a disability-inclusive view. The Turkish Disability Act enacted in 2005 is a foundation for our basic policy, which proves to be the most important reflection of this philosophy. The level we have reached in the last twenty years in disability inclusion have guided us in targeting a further point for the future. Significant progress has been made particularly in developing inclusive Information and Communication and Technologies, increasing employment diversity and addressing humanitarian emergencies that promotes the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and their independent living.”

Reminding that the “2030 Barrier-Free Vision”, which will be a roadmap in all policies and services until 2030, was announced in December 2021 by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister Yanık said: “As a high-level policy document, ‘Barrier-Free Vision’ aims to create a holistic framework to mainstream disability in all policies, programs and services, to make the issue of disability more visible and to enable the participation of persons with disabilities in the policy making and implementation processes. Barrier-Free Vision is envisaged to be implemented with 3-year action plan.”

At the end of her message, Minister Yanık emphasized that she believed that the conference would provide important insights and contributions at the global level on the protection and strengthening of the rights of persons with disabilities in the post-pandemic rebuilding process.

The conference, which continues with roundtable meetings and side events on different topics, will end tomorrow.