Health equity for persons with disabilities
Context
More than 1.3 billion persons with disabilities, or 16% of the global population, are among the most marginalized groups globally. Persons with disabilities experience a range of health inequities, including earlier deaths, poorer health and higher disease risk, due to unfair and avoidable factors within and beyond the health sector, such as lack of access to quality health services, inaccessible physical environments, negative attitudes of health workers, costs of services, societal stigma and discrimination.
Thus, Sweden, the International Disability Alliance, the Global Disability Fund (formally the UNPRPD) and the International Disability and Development Consortium are jointly organizing this thematic event on health to galvanize commitments and concrete actions to hosting a Thematic Pre-Summit on health equity for persons with disabilities leading up to the Global Disability Summit (GDS) 2025.
The objective of the Thematic Pre-Summit is to galvanise recognition that disability inclusion is fundamental to the success of achieving health and wellbeing for al. This recognition is essential to build momentum and to catalyse the political prioritisation needed for heads of states and governments, ministers of health, heads of agencies and international organizations, the private sector, and civil society leaders to ensure Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities.
Format
This pre-summit event will be held at UNAIDS (Geneva) in a hybrid format. Please complete the registration form to indicate your preference to attend in presence or online, and receive the necessary information. If you intend to attend in person, please complete the form by February 2, 2025, so that we may order catering accordingly.
Upon completing the registration form, all registrants will receive an automatic response with a calendar invitation and Zoom link to attend the event online.
If the registrant indicated their preference to join in person, the WHO team will contact them with additional information on the procedure required to access the premises. Kindly note that we will aim to accommodate the preference of all participants who wish to attend this event in person, but the venue has a limited seating capacity. To ensure a smooth experience, inperson seating will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis upon registration. Once full capacity is reached, we will not be able to accommodate additional attendees in person.
Logistics
Languages & disability inclusion
International Sign language interpretation, and live captioning and interpretation into the 6 UN official languages will be available to participants joining online and in presence.
If you require any reasonable accommodations or support to fully participate in this event, please contact the WHO team at disability@who.int. We are committed to making this event accessible
and inclusive for all participants.
Standards of conduct
All participants are expected to take note of the WHO’s standards of conduct. As such the requirements in the Code of Conduct to prevent harassment including sexual harassment at WHO events and the WHO’s Policy Framework, including the WHO Policy on Preventing and Addressing Sexual Misconduct, apply. By accepting the invitation to this meeting, it is understood that you agree to read, understand how it applies to you and your participation in this event and to abide by this code of conduct. Report any concerns or suspicions about misconduct that may occur during the course of this event directly to investigation@who.int or through WHO’s integrity hotline. For more information: https://www.who.int/about/ethics/code-of-conduct-at-whoevents”.
Photo & video consent
Please be advised that photos will be taken during this event for documentation and communication purposes. By attending in person, you are giving your consent to be photographed unless you explicitly inform us otherwise. If you do not wish to appear in any photos, please notify a member of the event staff at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Contact
For any questions, please contact: disability@who.int
