Implementation of the World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons

Requests the Secretary-General to assist in the early implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons by ensuring its wide distribution and promotion;

Requests Member States to develop plans for the equalization of opportunities for disabled persons, as well as for prevention and rehabilitation, and thereby ensure early implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons;

Requests all organs, organizations and agencies of the United Nations system to formulate and undertake measures within their respective spheres of competence, through a reallocation of existing resources, to ensure early implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and requests, in particular, the regional commissions to implement suitable programmes, on the understanding that effective consultation and co-ordination between the various bodies are essential;

Requests the Secretary-General to establish interorganizational task forces, as recommended by the Advisory Committee for the International Year of Disabled Persons at its third and fourth sessions, 48 in order to provide support services, as described in paragraph I 7 of General Assembly resolution 36/77, within the existing arrangements for interagency co-ordination in order to support national and regional activities in the developing regions in the fields of prevention of disability, rehabilitation and equalization of opportunities for disabled persons;

Encourages the Secretary-General to find the means to provide the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat with the necessary resources to enable it to ensure follow-up to the International Year of Disabled Persons and to facilitate the implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue consultative services to Member States concerning the design of national programmes for the prevention of disability, for rehabilitation and for equalization of opportunities for disabled persons, to develop a practical check-list dealing with the equalization of opportunities for disabled persons which could be used by consultants in discussion with Governments of Member States and to compile and distribute information on available technical and financial resources to assist developing countries in the prevention of disability, rehabilitation and the equalization of opportunities;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to give appropriate priority, within the programmes for disabled persons, to activities related to organizations of disabled persons;

Again urges all organs, organizations and agencies of the United Nations system to undertake new measures or expedite those already under way to improve employment opportunities for disabled persons within those bodies at all levels and to improve access to their buildings and facilities and to their information sources, and requests the Secretary- General to submit a report on these measures to the General Assembly at its thirty-ninth session;

Requests all Governments in a position to do so, the United Nations Development Programme and all relevant United Nations organs, organizations and agencies to assist Governments of developing countries, at their request, in the formulation of national policies and programmes for disabled persons;

Encourages Governments to proclaim national days for the disabled;

Urges international organizations and funding bodies to give higher priority to human resources development, in particular to training activities in the fields of prevention of disability and rehabilitation, and to enhance the equalization of opportunities and the participation of disabled persons;

Requests the organizations of the United Nations system to recognize the needs of disabled persons in their activities relating to the International Youth Year and in the international and regional congresses and meetings that they sponsor;

Requests the World Health Organization, in the light of the experience of the International Year of Disabled Persons, to review its definitions of impairment, disability and handicap in consultation with organizations of disabled persons and other appropriate bodies;

Requests the Secretary-General to explore the possibility of convening in 1987 a meeting of experts, consisting largely of disabled persons, to prepare a report that would enable him to help the General Assembly at its forty-second session to evaluate the implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, as provided for in paragraph 3 of resolution 37/52;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-ninth session on the implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons.