Shaping the Future of Disability Inclusion: From CRPD at 20 to the Global Disability Summit 2028 (COSP19 Side Event)

So on behalf of the State of Qatar and the International Disability Alliance, it is my pleasure to welcome you to today's event, Shaping the Future of Disability Inclusion from CRPD at 20 to the Global Disability Summit 2028.
Thank you all for joining us.
I am the advisor to the Minister of Social Development and Family in the State of Qatar and the Summit in lead for the Global Disability Summit 2028.
So I'm going to start by introducing our undersecretary.
His Excellency, doctor Khalifa Ben Isad Kubisi.
He's the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Development and Family and he's going to deliver the opening remarks.
Your Excellency, the floor is yours.
Thank you so much, Sultana.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, allow me at the outest to warmly welcome you all and express my appreciation for all your valuable participation.
Your presence today reflects a shared commitment to advancing the rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
The permanent mission of the State of Qatar is b to co organize this event with the Ministry of Social Development and Family at the State of Qatar and the International Disability Alliance.
The theme of today's side event is timely and important as the international community marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This milestone offers an opportunity to reflect on the progress achieved.
Identify remaining challenges.
And advance practical strategies that strengthen disability inclusion across various sectors including education and employment.
Excellencies, the State of Qatar is proud to be among the first countries to ratify the Convention of the Rights of persons with disabilities.
Our firm commitment to the rights of persons with disabilities is demonstrated through a wide range of policies, legislation, measures, and programs designed to ensure their full and effective participation in society.
Qatar remains committed to aligning its policies and programs with the objectives of the Third National Development Strategy 2024, 2030, which seeks to advance comprehensive and sustainable development for persons with disabilities, strengthen their independence, and expand their participation.
The National Strategy 2025, 2030 at the Ministry of Social Development and Family in Qatar launched under the theme from Care to empowerment, adopts a comprehensive approach centered on empowerment, justice, and sustainability and aims to foster an inclusive society that prioritize care and provides the necessary tools to empower persons with disability.
As part of the ongoing efforts to expand educational opportunities for students with disabilities, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in partnership with Carter Foundation launched Wharf Academy.
The academy serves as a Center of Excellence dedicated to providing educational and therapeutic services for students with profound and multiple disabilities.
Ladies and gentlemen, the State of Qatar was honored to host the Second World Summit for Social Development in November 2025.
The summit represented an important opportunity to promote the rights of people with disabilities.
The Doha Political Declaration reaffirmed the importance of ensuring the full and effective inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities, including through removing barriers and implementing inclusive, accessible, and rights based policies and services.
Looking ahead, the State of Qatar is honored to host the Global Disability Summit in 2020 2028.
In cooperation with the International Disability Alliance, we trust that this summit will serve a vital platform to assist progress, address the remaining gaps, and strengthen international partnerships aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities worldwide.
As we approach the final years of the 2023 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, the summit will provide a valuable opportunity to accelerate investment in policies and the structures and structures necessary to promote the participation, well being, and the rights of persons with disability.
Hosting the summit reflects Qatar's leading role in supporting global efforts and fostering partnerships and actions needed to deliver meaningful and lasting impact for persons with disability and their families.
Qatar stands ready to work with all partners to ensure an impactful summit.
To conclude, I reaffirm the unwavering commitment of the state of Qatar to advancing the protecting the persons with disabilities to realize their full potential.
I thank you.
Thank you, Your Excellency, for those opening remarks and for Qatar's continued leadership and commitment to advancing disability inclusion.
It is now my pleasure to invite doctor Nawaf Guevara, President of the International Disability Alliance and one of the most respected voices in the global disability movement.
I didn't write that bit, please go ahead.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.
We meet today at a defining moment for the global disability movement.
Nearly two days ago, After the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of Person Disabilities, we have witnessed remarkable progress.
Disability rights are increasingly recognized as human rights.
More countries have adopted inclusive legislation.
More organizations are embracing accessibility and participation.
More persons with disabilities are claiming their rightful place as leaders, innovators, and agents of change.
Yet, our journey toward inclusion remains unfinished.
As we look ahead to the Global Disability Summit in 2028, we must ask ourselves a critical question.
What kind of future are we building for the 1.3 billion person viability around the world? The answer will depend not only on our commitment, but on our willingness to transform systems that continue to exclude millions of people every day.
Around the world, persons with disability continue to face disproportionate poverty, unemployment, limited access to education and health care, and exclusion from political and public life.
Armed conflict, humanitarian crisis, climate emergencies, and economic instability are affecting persons with disabilities more severely than ever before.
In many countries, disability inclusion remains underfunded and under prioritized.
Too often, we hear a strong commitment, but we see limited implementation.
Too often, accessibility is treated as an optional expense rather than a fundamental right.
Too often, organization of personal visability are consulted after decision have already been taken.
Between now and 2028, we must move beyond promises and focus on accountability.
We need governments to invest in inclusive education system that prepare all children for the future.
We need labor markets that recognize the talent, creativity, and contribution of persons with disabilities.
We need healthcare systems that guarantee equitable access and expect dignity.
We need political institutions where persons with disability are represented not as beneficiaries, but as decision makers.
The future of disability inclusion must also be shaped by emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, is rapidly transforming our societies.
It has the potential to become one of the greatest tools and agent for inclusion and development.
AI can improve communication, support independent living, enhance access to education, create new employment opportunities, and remove barriers that have existed for generations.
However, AI also presents serious risk if persons with disability are excluded from the design, governance, and regulation of AI systems.
Existent inequality may be amplified.
Based algorithm can reinforce discrimination.
Inaccessible technologies can create new barriers.
Digital divides can leave millions behind.
The question is not whether AI will shape the future, it already is.
The question is whether personal visibility will help shape AI.
The disability movement must therefore become a central actor in global discussion about technology, innovation, and digital governance.
Nothing about us without us must apply equally to artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and future technologies.
Do we have going to have a disabled robot? Let's see.
Looking toward 2028, I believe our movement has three major priorities.
First, meaningful participation.
Person with disability and the representative organizations must be present wherever policies, technologies, and investments are being designed.
Second, sustainable investment.
Disability inclusion cannot continue to rely on project based funding and short term commitment.
Government, development agencies, and the private sector must make disability inclusion a core investment priority.
Third, solidarity.
The disability movement must remain united across regions, generations, and disability constituency.
In a word, increasingly divided by confort and inequality, our strength lies in collective action.
The road to the Global Disability Summit 2028 is not merely a countdown to another international event.
It is an opportunity to accelerate implementation, strengthen accountability, and demonstrate that inclusions benefit everyone.
When we gather in 2028, let us not simply report on commitment made, let us celebrate measurable progress achieved.
Let us ensure that the next generation of person viability inherits a world that is more accessible, more equitable, more inclusive, and more just.
The future is being shaped today.
The decision we make between now and 2028 will determine whether desirability inclusion advances or stagnates, whether technology empowers or excludes, and whether the promise of the CRPD becomes a lid reality for millions of people.
Together, let us choose progress, together, let us choose inclusion, together, let us build the future that person ability to deserve.
See you in Qatar in 2028.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, doctor Cuba, for those reflections and for reminding us how far we've come and the work that still lies ahead.
As we look ahead, the question isn't simply how we commemorate 20 years of CRPD, but how we build on its promise and accelerate progress in the years to come.
It is in this spirit that I would like to focus my remarks today on the Global Disability Summit 2028, which, as we've mentioned, the State of Qatar has the honor of hosting in partnership with IDA, the International Disability Alliance.
GDS 2028 is more than a summit.
It is an opportunity to shape the next phase of global disability inclusion and beyond cost, one of the largest global platforms for translating dialogue into action.
This will be the fourth global Disability Summit and as we look ahead to Doha, we do so with great respect for those who have come before us.
Our ambition is to build on their momentum.
By moving the needle from needle further on implementation, accountability, and measurable impact.
The true measure of success for GDS 2028 will not be the commitments we announce, but the improvements for those commitments bring to the everyday lives of people with disability and their families.
So the road to Doha starts here.
As we mark 20 years since CRPD, we do so in a rapidly changing world shaped by technological disruption, demographic shifts, and growing geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
I listened to the discussions yesterday taking place at KOSP, I was reminded of another important truth.
There is no single disability experience.
We heard reflections on the unique identities and experiences of indigenous persons with disabilities.
We heard calls from colleagues from the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to strengthen the safety nets available to older persons with disabilities.
These conversations remind us that people with disabilities cannot and should not be treated as a homogeneous group.
Oppression is not only found in overt discrimination, it can also be embedded in systems that flatten identity, overlook difference, and make some experiences visible while rendering others invisible.
Dehomogenizing disability is essential if we are to move forward with renewed purpose.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have six children.
I have learned a great deal through being a mother, but it was becoming the grandmother of a little boy with cerebral palsy that truly transformed the way I see the world.
My grandson's spirit reminds me every day that we must do better.
It reminds me how much there is still to learn, how much we take for granted, and why the decisions we make in rooms like these must always be grounded in the dignity, rights, and aspirations of every person with disability.
As we prepare for Doha, we will be inviting the global community to help shape the agenda.
We are exploring themes that reflect both longstanding gaps and emerging opportunities from inclusive technology and artificial intelligence to economic participation, health equity, aging, and financing.
And the importance of measuring what truly matters in people's lives.
To support this process, we will commission a series of evidence based reports to ensure that our discussions are grounded in research, lived experience, and pragmatic policy recommendations that can deliver.
We also want DoorHb to be a platform of innovation.
We will be launching an international innovation competition to identify and showcase innovations from around the world, giving nascent innovators the opportunity to showcase their work, interact with investors, and share their ideas with a truly global audience.
But GDS does not have a fixed agenda.
It is an open invitation.
The road to DoHb belongs to all of us, so challenge our assumptions, share what is working, tell us what we are missing, and help us identify where the greatest opportunities for change lie.
Together, we have an opportunity to shape a global disability summit that is ambitious in its vision, practical in its approach, and focused on improving the everyday lives of persons with disabilities and their families.
Perhaps this is where I think we would leave this conversation because I want to really hear from our panelists today, because the questions before us today are not about what we've achieved over the past 20 years, but also about what we could have done differently and what we will do differently.
So what have we learned? Why do gaps between commitments and lived realities still persist? How can we ensure that the road to Doha translates ambition into meaningful change? I look forward to hearing the reflections of our distinguished panelists as we explore these questions together.
So let me introduce them.
So Merritt, I hope I'm saying your name properly.
Merit Sorheim is the Executive Director of the Atlas Alliance and represents the International Disability and Development Consortium.
She has extensive experience in international development, humanitarian action, and civil society leadership.
Having previously held CNA positions with organizations including Caritus Norway and Norway, Norwegian Refugee Council, Merit leads the Atlas Alliance's work to promote the rights and inclusions of persons with disabilities through International Development Cooperation and humanitarian action.
She is a strong advocate for disability inclusive development, localization, and strengthening the role of organizations for persons with disability in shaping policy and practice.
Connie Lauren Bowie.
Connie is the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Fund and the Disability Rights Advocacy Fund.
She leads efforts to support organizations of persons with disabilities and strengthen disability rights movements across the global South.
Miss Bowie has extensive experience in philanthropy, social justice, and organizational leadership.
Her work focuses on disability inclusive philanthropy, localization and movement building.
She is widely recognized for promoting participatory grant making and advancing the leadership and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in development and and social change efforts worldwide.
Esther Nagata, please do excuse me if I mispronounce your name there.
Esther Nagate holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and philosophy from the University of Ghana and has experience working with organizations of persons with disability at national and regional levels.
Esther has contributed to youth leadership and disability inclusive programs, supported advocacy and coordination processes linked to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability and Sustainable Development Goals, and engaged in intersectional initiatives promoting the rights of young women and other underrepresented groups.
Her areas of expertise include youth participation, gender and disability inclusion, intersectionality and disability inclusive advocacy and capacity building.
Handles, let's focus firstly on what we have learned from 20 years of the CRPD and what should shape the road to Doha.
Please do keep your answers to 3 minutes.
We have a gavel here with Greta.
And she's not scared to use it, believe me.
I think we'll start with merit first.
Merit from the perspective of international development and cooperation, what do you think has been the most important lesson from the past 20 years? If you had to identify one factor that had genuinely helped move disability inclusion from aspiration to implementation, what would you say that was? Thank you very much.
Can you all hear me? Yeah.
Good.
First of all, thank you so much for the invitation to participate in this discussion.
Well, first of all, and thank you for a very good question that I'll do my very best to answer in 3 minutes.
I think the most important thing to say is that nothing works without meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations.
We have seen a gradual shift within international cooperation, development, and humanitarian response where we see that there is a recognition that development programs are more effective, legitimate, and sustainable when persons with disabilities are involved in the design, implementation, and monitoring of them.
But the important thing is that this cannot only be a stamp of approval when everything has already been designed.
OPDs must be in the driver's seat of development programs from the start.
We need to see true partnerships.
So that's one very important thing.
Also, a very important lesson from the last 20 years I think is that neither mainstreaming or targeted support to OBD is sufficient on its own.
We need to see a combination.
Progress has been greatest when we have adopted a twin track approach, ensuring disability inclusion across development efforts, while also investing directly in persons with disabilities and their representative organizations.
And third, data.
Data matters.
For many years, persons with disabilities were largely invisible in development statistics.
The growing use of disability disaggregated data has helped demonstrate inequalities and guide investments, and yet, as we all know, there are still significant gaps, particularly in low income and fragile settings.
Um, and last but not least, commitments are not enough.
Donors must make inclusion a core requirement in all development and humanitarian funding.
I think that is the most important lessons.
We need international NGOs, humanitarian and development joining OPDs in learning how to do inclusive programming and driving the agenda forward.
I think that would be mindful.
No one, but perhaps four.
Yeah.
I don't know if you can hear me.
Mics are very confusing.
I know we had a follow up question, but I'm going to ask you a different follow up question because a few of the things that you said were actually resonated quite a bit with me.
In terms of data, one of the reasons why we focused on having the research reports is I feel that the evidence based reports are lacking somewhat and data is kink.
Persons with disabilities, as you said, were largely invisible before evidence based data helps to actualize what problems are and the evidence based definitely matters.
In terms of moving forward, what do you think that we need to do before we get to Doha 2028 to make sure that we foster a greater research capacity, not just in the world that we live in, everybody here is of this world.
I think one of the things that we need to do is reach out further than that.
Where do you see those gaps and how do you think you can help for us actually, in pushing that forward, pushing that agenda forward? Yes, I think the most important thing is that we need to persuade international donors to fund data collection, and then build on statistical systems and databases that already exist in order to improve data collection and analysis of those data.
Um, there is a reluctance to finance those kinds of activities, but they are key in order to advance the inclusion agenda and to improve the situation of persons with disabilities in the global South.
I think that would be the main message because we have all the tools that we need.
We have the systems that we need, but we need the funding.
Thank you.
Connie, Connie, disability rights funds has worked along organizations of persons with disabilities across the world, particularly in the global South.
Looking back, what has surprised or inspired you most about the growth and influence of disability movements over the past two decades? Thank you.
Excellent question, I think.
We've been spending some time looking back over the last 20 years and digging into actually what is some evidence and data about what worked and how disability organizations have been able to have an impact in the last 20 years.
What we know is that investment in locally led organizations to do the work in country in community has had the biggest impact and that has meant, for example, that we have legislative frameworks and policy frameworks across the board in many countries that we did not have 20 years ago.
I'd like to attribute part of that to the fact that during the negotiations, disability organizations here in New York spent a lot of time working together, building trust and solidarity and understanding that together we could have a larger impact.
Then over the course of the subsequent ten or 20 years, those groups then were in country doing the similar kind of work.
Could I just jump in there.
If you could give me an example just to bring it to life, that would sound amazing.
Well, in most countries, there are legislative frameworks in place that across disability legislation.
As the CRPD was ratified, countries adopted disability, human rights based disability language.
Then many organizations of people with disabilities began to do work in spaces like legal capacity, inclusive education, a range of employment laws, things that really were much more deeply embedded in the day to day aspects of implementing the convention.
That foundation exists because we invested in those OPDs.
Thank you.
If we're serious about nothing about us without us, what does meaningful power sharing actually look like to you and what needs to happen for disability movements to shape broader development agendas rather than simply respond to what's happening today.
Mm.
So in a very difficult political context globally, disability is being made invisible as we are so I think we're all very much in a moment where we're thinking about, well, what does the future of disability rights look like in the broader context? I think in order to raise up the voice of people with disabilities into agendas that are bigger than disability specific agendas, we need allyship with other movements.
We spent a lot of time in places like New York talking to ourselves about disability rights.
We don't have a lot of opportunity to be working with the feminist organizations or the indigenous organizations or the groups that are active in gender diversity.
I'm really fascinated by the way that youth are organizing now and how they do that in a quite an organic way.
I think the hope and I think the place where we need to be thinking about investing is where those groups come together and create conversation.
We have a generation of people who are young people who are quite aware of disability, they're active in climate.
They're active in issues affecting humanitarian aid and finding spaces to make sure that we bring those communities together in the same way we did when we're negotiating the convention across disability groups, we now need to be thinking about building those allyships so that we can have a broader impact on the SDGs and other aspects of global.
Fascinating.
The thing about youth disillusionment is actually an interesting topic because I think they don't believe what they see in the news.
They create their news many times and the conversations are already fascinating.
They're looking at issues on their own terms.
I think disability, making it cooler and more accessible to young people would definitely help to carry that message further? Because I think we're the same people speaking about the same thing every day in the same rooms.
For them, it feels very disconnected to their reality, to their live reality and I agree with you.
I think this is a perfect time to bring in Esther as someone who is young.
Esther, as someone representing the next generation of disability leadership, do you think young people with disabilities have inherited a movement that is fit for the future? I think you're going to say no to this.
What has the movement? Yeah, it's fine to say no.
So what do you think the movements got right and where do you think it still needs to evolve? Thank you so much, and I am happy to be contributing to this important conversation today.
One of the most meaningful areas of progress is that persons with disabilities, including young persons with disabilities are only being spoken about.
Increasingly, we are speaking for ourselves, organizing, advocating, shaping policy, and claiming our place in decision making spaces.
As a young person with a visual disability, education was both my biggest challenge and my greatest opportunity.
For many years, I depended on classmates to read materials aloud because most of my textbooks and learning materials were not available in accessible formats.
I remember feeling that my education depended not on my own efforts, but on the goodwill of others.
That is not inclusion.
That is survival within an inaccessible system.
My role exposure to assistive technology came much later.
Having access to and learning how to use assistive technology transformed my life.
Suddenly, I could read, research, communicate independently, and participate more fully in my education.
It was empowering.
It gave me confidence, freedom, and dignity.
However, my experience also reviewed the barriers that still exist.
Does still exist.
Access alone is not enough.
A young person can receive a device, but without the training on how to use it and the teachers who understand how to support them, that device may not become a tool for learning and may sit unused.
When I think about the biggest untapped opportunity for the next generation, I think about the intersection of education, assistive technology, digital accessibility, and financial independence.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Artificial intelligence, technology and assistive technology can open new doors to education and participation.
But innovation without inclusion can also create create new barriers.
If accessibility is not built in from the start, new technology can reproduce old exclusion in more sophisticated ways.
The opportunity before us is not only to include young persons with disabilities in existing systems.
It is to redesign those systems and new ones with us from the start.
Thank you, Esther.
I think I would argue also accessibility and affordability because a lot of the time the accessibility is there, but only for nations who can afford it.
Doctor Noah actually alluded to that with AI and technology and its effect or barriers that it creates because it also creates an unequal world within the disability world for people who don't have that access.
So very briefly because you haven't this here? Are we doing all right? We're doing all right.
Just briefly because I think we're going on to Round two, which is you as well.
So I starting with you as the first question.
What do you think you would like as a message, just one thing to say to people around you who have lived and walked this fight for quite a while and as a young person, the message that you want to convey that what's the thing that I guess annoys you the most or feels like the biggest gap in terms of what everybody is doing around you and you really want to address? What do you wish we knew about you in terms of the biggest gap? Yes? I think one major issue is the transition from learning to learning.
It is important to know that this journey begins long before a young person applies for a job.
It begins in the classroom.
It begins with whether a child with a disability is expected to learn, whether they are given the tools to learn, and whether society believes they have a future.
This is why the pathway from education to employment must be understood as a right a rights issue, not only a development issue.
Inclusive education without employment pathways leave young people waiting at the door.
Employment policies without inclusive education leave many young persons with disabilities unable to reach that door in the first place.
Sounds great.
You'd be happy to know that one of the reports that we're doing is actually very much focused on that because we've seen a huge disconnect between what persons with disabilities learn in a learning environment, the vocational skills that they get, and how they translate those to the workplace.
So in order to make that more seamless and look at the systems and create frameworks, we'd love to have you on that report and hear more about your perspectives so that we can start to frame that in a way that will actually create change.
And that's the point of the report.
It really is, I want people to kind of I know we said evidence based reports, but really we're looking at problems and addressing solutions from an innovative, cost effective way, and then putting together a ten point plan or policy recommendations that we hope that a layman and an expert can pick up and think, okay, there is something here that I can start to create as a foundation.
I hasten to say it's not going to be me who's the expert writing these reports, it will be the real experts and we'll look to young people to do that.
So thank you for that.
It seems like I'm supposed to ask you a question again, but I'm going to go back to Merritt because I think I've put you on the spot enough.
Okay.
So in terms of, I know we talked a lot about commitments, we talk a lot about commitments and how do we change how do commitments become implementation? And honestly, I've seen many launches of strategies that people are very proud to launch and often don't think about implementing.
And I think one of the things and another report that we're doing is financing because one of the things people often forget is who's going to do it? Where are the expert, and how are we going to finance it? So I think we need to finance we need to build in that finance at the beginning.
So Merritt, there's no shortage of commitments in the disability space from the perspective of development cooperation, how can the Road to Doha help drive that implementation and accountability? The answer is our reports, but you can say something else if you want to rather than simply generating momentum.
Thank you very much.
I think the most important thing is standing together Oh, yes, sorry.
Can you hear me now? Great.
I think what is important is to stand together with other movements, as Connie has already mentioned, because one thing is obviously the commitments made at the Global Disability Summit 2025 and 2022 and also 2018.
But I think the backsliding on human rights, the funding cuts, development and humanitarian funding cuts are they are impacting not only our movement, but also the women's movement, indigenous movements, and other human rights organizations and groups, the wider human rights community.
It's extremely important to build alliances and stand together.
I think that's one big recommendation, if you want.
Yeah, sorry.
Yeah, it's on now.
Do you think one of the problems is that we look to traditional donors and funders and we need to think a little bit outside the box and think, how can we persuade other people to be donors? How does it benefit them? It's a really easy equation, isn't it? If you educate people and they have a job, they're not a burden on you, they're independent and they also contribute to society, which helps in terms of their costs and also their mental health and independent living status.
How do we persuade people who aren't typically within our sphere to look at this as an investment that's worth doing because often persons with disabilities are the greatest casualties when it comes to cutting funds in government and especially at this time where it's such a big issue.
Mm.
Yes, as you say, I think the important thing is to make sure that we always talk about persons with disabilities as a resource to society.
Absolutely.
That is extremely important.
It's something that the women's movement has been very clear on that if you don't ensure equality between men and women and let women participate in work in politics, et cetera countries will not prosper.
That is the exact same message that we need to send when it comes to persons with disabilities.
Making up 16% of the world's population.
Yeah.
That's absolutely.
That's a good question, I think.
Look at examples that have worked and the women's movement, definitely.
Connie, DRF has a unique vantage point through its support to organizations of persons with disability around the world.
Looking ahead to GDS 2028, what do you think would make the greatest difference in helping local priorities shape global action rather than the other way around? I like that question.
I think what's where 20 years after the negotiation, we had an opportunity in the negotiations to come together and build strategies together.
I think GDS means bringing people together, bringing disability activists, bringing other activists together so that the agendas that they're focused on become a global agenda.
We could decide in this room what the themes are and you're, I think, doing an excellent job of thinking about what the key issues we need to be focused on are.
When you talk to local activists and local OPDs, they're dealing with some pretty fundamental kids can't go to school if there's a flood in where they live.
How does activism at a local level get translated into the issues that we'll be talking about at GDS.
This is really a moment where we can bring activists together again and give them a chance to talk across the issues that are important to them.
Creating space for that conversation at GDS, I think would be really important.
Yeah, absolutely.
We look forward to hearing your ideas on how we can do that more effectively because activism at a local level resonating globally or more fully.
I think that the thing is yesterday with the OIC and the League of Is one thing that I did realize is people and communities do come together.
There are some things that bind people and we should use them more effectively.
One of the things that this is an example I'm giving from my old life.
One of the things that we saw in Gatar that we needed to address was dementia and Alzheimer's.
How do you persuade people and especially persuade caregivers and children that their parent has dementia? Because even the word is so stigmatized in Arabic that people don't want to say it.
Then we did workshops linking, the need to care for your parents as a right, their right and also the religion and what the religion prescribes is their right as well.
You can respect your parents, but you're actually denying them care by not acknowledging.
Sometimes the narrative needs to change.
I think that cutting across religions or indigenous people and their languages really does help.
For example, in New Zealand, there is a really interesting case where people with disabilities and people without impairments or disabilities all do the same type of art together.
That is a leveler.
Finding those levelers and allowing people to connect on some level, I think that that will be a really interesting way to look at disability and its movement and debunking the stereotypical image that people have I'd like to just add one dimension to this.
I think that for a long time we invested in OPDs with the expectation that they were going to be creating demands on government and be advocates for change.
They did that, that's been successful.
I think what we still need to think about is OPDs and activists as knowledge holders.
They know how and they know why.
I think that level of support to OPDs and bringing that knowledge and knowledge of practice, which is relevant to the examples that you just gave.
Is an important way to advance the work that OPDs are currently doing.
I'm probably stealing Jose's line, but being good partners not just in advocacy, but also in actually solution building.
You can steal his line if you want because he forced me to be moderator last minute.
I think it's absolutely fine.
Jose, before we turn to the audience for questions, you've had the privilege of listening to this conversation from the perspective of IDA and with disability movements across the world.
What are the two or three themes that stand out for you from what we've heard today and help you shape your priorities for the upcoming summit? Perhaps.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sultana, and good afternoon everyone.
Excellency, colleagues and friends.
First of all, it is a great honor on behalf of the International Disability Alliance to be hosting this first public event for the Global Disability Summit 2028.
I'm pretty sure that everyone in this room has been waiting as much as we have to be able to have this first gathering as part of the GDS 2028 journey.
It's really amazing to see, and I really want to extend a warm thanks to all the panelists here because basically the first key message that we really wanted to convey and clearly would be a guidance moving forward when we plan or we continue planning GDS 2028, We cannot do this alone.
It's absolutely important that we build on the concept of the notion of partnership.
There is no doubt that organization of persons with disabilities, we do have a central role to play.
I really think that it's very important what Connie just said regarding organization of persons with disabilities, also as knowledge holders and also as solution builders.
We have come after many years to the realization that the CRPD, it was our collective result of ensuring that the right of persons with disabilities were going to be a reality.
But looking ahead, and this is the second message that I think we are going to carry forward for the GDS 2028, is how to transform policies and laws into real and practical tools for persons with disabilities.
The next message that I think it's important to building on the first three editions of the summits that we have had together is really the acknowledgment that, as we saw in Berlin and in the previous summit, Doha will not have just one summit, but multiple summit, Summit where we are going to be discussing knowledge, summit where we are going to be discussing solutions, summit where people will just convene, come together, and discuss about things that matters to persons with disabilities, summit that will have innovation and summit that will have the ambition of moving the agenda forward.
For sure.
The next message along the previous one is that we should leave Doha after GES 2028 with the absolute conviction that the Global Disability Summit is not just another conference in this journey.
That is not just another gathering of persons with disabilities getting together and talking about the topics that matter to us.
But instead, the Global Disability Summit is the platform where the global disability movement including all those who support organizational persons with disabilities and do have many other roles and responsibilities within the inclusion architecture, can come together and think about how to create solutions that are by and for persons with disabilities.
Our commitment as one of the co hosts is basically partnership, solution oriented, pushing frontiers forward, bringing the topics that matters to persons with disabilities and securing that the global Disability Summit is not just the intellectual property of the co host, but rather a shared good of all the disability movement.
Thank you, Jose.
You did remind me of something I actually didn't mention earlier, which is we will be having events leading up to the Global Disability Summit.
I think the reason for those are twofold.
First of all, we're forced to because that's a contract.
Secondly, I think nothing about us without us is a key ethos here and we can't do research without putting out the preliminary findings, finding out what people think, how do we shape it? We can't finalize a report and hand it to you.
It has to be something that we do together.
Those pre summit events will actually help us to shape the agenda, shape the research, make sure that we're actually doing what our community expects of us rather than what we think we need to give them.
We cannot give you a finished product and we can't give you an agenda that we've shaped.
Those symposiums are really going to be important.
I am going to because we have such an amazing room full of people here, open the floor for questions.
I do forewarn you if you don't ask questions, I'm going to ask really terrible boring questions, please go ahead.
Please, please do address your questions to the panelists today.
I'm happy to chat with you later.
But we have real experts here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
My name is Him Hadrian.
I'm the CEO of People Authority in Saudi Arabia.
First, I'd like to thank Qatar for this wonderful gathering and also for the international alliance with doctor Nair.
I enjoy every single word that's been said here.
It was really an added value to me personally.
And the good element here, which we enjoy it more, it's the moderator.
We make it really rich and we get a lot of information.
My question, maybe it's a little bit away from what's being discussed, but as a young person like Esther, I am, I'm trying to be.
Now with the different generation and talking about AI, we usually take it it's a positive thing and we usually take it like this is will humanity will be added to the disability, while one thing that we would lose, which is human to human interaction, which we could see here, that we could feel it.
From your perspective, and it's not a question for one person, whoever wants to share with me their thought, is it going to be a side effect for using an AI or because I'm from Generation X seeing this differently? Thank you.
Please, I'm I'm more than happy for Esther to take that being the young person in the room, and you called yourself young and old in the same sentence.
I just want you to keep that in mind.
Please, Esther, go ahead.
Thank you so much.
I will say that it's not necessarily a side effect if done right.
Artificial intelligence, it's good.
For myself, it's helped me a lot as a person with visual impairment and I believe it's the same for most young people who we use AI for a lot of our staff today.
If it's done right and with the inputs from all the diverse identities of persons with disabilities, especially young persons with disabilities, we will get it right.
As I always say, when we include young people with disabilities in all decision making spaces, we tend to have solution that covers more people and it's more real in the life of the people that are supposed to be benefiting from this innovation.
Thank you.
I think that the question is really valid because there is a huge amount of evidence out there about digital addiction.
There are countries that actually are now curtailing social media for young people, and I don't think that persons with disabilities are immune to the addiction and the lack of social capacity that they don't learn by human interaction.
It's actually a very good question.
I'm going to go to Cara, who's waiting patiently.
Please go ahead, Cra.
Sam.
My name is Kara Yarkan.
I had the privilege of being one of the moderators of GDS 2025 in Berlin.
I thought in 2025, they did a wonderful job of promoting the summit to the general public.
I had the privilege of announcing GDS at the Global Citizen festival here in New York City to a live audience of 60,000 people and millions and millions online.
In Germany, we saw billboards around the city promoting GDS, and we also had wonderful cultural influencers from Jordan who did an excellent job.
I'm offering a suggestion as we were invited to do and would be curious to hear at some future events, how Qatar is going to promote GDS outside of our beautiful disability community so that we're not only singing to the choir.
It will be an honor to return to the country, having not been there since 2012 for the Suffo Forum.
Thank you.
Cara, I'm very persuaded by your argument.
Send me your CV after the panel and we can have a conversation.
Secondly, I think ID contracted to do that.
I think that question should be theirs.
But to be serious, we're very conscious of the fact that we're doing a summit in that region for the first time, and we're very, very eager to work with our GCC partners.
Some of the work this wonderful gentleman next to me has talked about, and I know some of the work that they do and other partners within the region, we will be promoting that way.
Because that's not an area that I typically occupies.
I know that they have a very good coms machine to promote the summit, but I think that we need to think about the people that aren't normally as engaged and also create its own identity because of the region that it's in and think about all the things that are making it unique beyond the innovation and the research that I've already discussed.
Yeah, we would love to hear from you here.
Thank you.
But I think doctor Nav is, What is interesting is that the historical development of GDS, where we started in London and we were coming to in 2028.
Now, in Berlin, we really developed some a new partnership with Germany and Jordan concerning working out much more of an event and we developed research, regional meetings, and so on.
Now we've Qatar leadership, what we have discussed, we are really looking forward for a major central role in Qatar concerning the W worldwide, like a hub for information, for development, for negotiation, for discussing what's going on, future challenges, how we're going to deal with them.
When I visit Qatar the first time and I saw the kind of approach they're dealing to solve the problem of reasonable accommodation, many things, then I said to myself, Oh my God, here we are of something I already dreamt of, but I didn't see it.
I saw it in Qatar.
I'm very proud because I'm Arab also that was very interesting for me.
And in the discussion we had either and the Cap ministry, we really hope Excellency, we're hoping to move forward as we're going to hopefully after 2028, is really turning this into a real strategy for action to achieve something tangible as a new commitment, as a new way forward for the future.
Thank you.
The lady in the mask, please go ahead.
Hello.
Can you hear me? Yes.
My name is Felicity Chapman.
I'm a New York disability advocate focused on education equity and I had traveled to the Global Disability Summit through a fellowship with the Obama Foundation.
One of my reflections when I got there was, how can we get more youth involved in this event? It took me a lot of work to find two or so events where youth were speaking and actively involved.
My question to you is what work are you doing to make sure that youth are more engaged in not only being there, but also participants in those panels? I remember One of the things that was most insightful to me as I was sitting at a panel about UK disability progress and I was sitting next to a Scottish youth advocate who told me how that policy affected them.
I realized, wow, I wish young people were also on those panels because their reflection of how that policy affected them helped me better understand how these issues are affecting daily lives.
I just want to know what work is going into making sure that we're more involved and present in those processes.
It Yeah.
Jose, this is my answer, then you can answer.
Okay.
That's a really good question because actually when I was in Berlin, I thought the same thing.
I thought, how could we do this better? The reason why I thought that was my 80-year-old grandson who we once called disabled in a conversation turned to me and said, I'm not disabled, I'm just me.
He did say it in Arabic, but that's what he was saying.
I realized that actually we ignore young people at our peril, so we should listen to them more, even young people at the age of eight.
One of the things that I discussed with Ida and Jose probably wanted to say this, but I'm saying it first, is looking at the volunteers for the summit and their ages.
What we want to do is have young people learn to sign, and these are autistic children or children with impairments, children with disabilities and make them part of the process.
When I talked about the innovation competition, actually, it will be for school children as well.
So we want this movement.
We've also asked Jose and the team to come to Qatar and teach children how to sign and how to become part of this journey because I think they're the change makers of tomorrow, and it doesn't have to be persons with disabilities.
It can be schoolchildren.
We're excited to make them part of this journey because we think destigmatizing disability and rethinking how we're talking about a huge chunk of society who people think are they're them, they're not us.
But you're talking about 15% of the civil society.
That isn't just a little bit of them, that's a lot.
So we need to rethink how our society looks at persons with disability.
I think these type of conversations and also having those people within the summit is really going to help to spread that message.
Children are amazing with their messaging, they're blunt, they're beautiful and they really are not afraid to say what they want us to hear.
Jose Youwon I'll be very brief because I think it's important that we hear from the audience here.
I would say that we have learned through the two GDS in 2022 and 2025, the importance in 2022, we organized a youth summit.
In 2025, we did try to bring the perspective of the young people with disabilities.
For 2028, the commitment is very clear.
We need not just to ensure meaningful participation of persons with disabilities of the younger generation, but also and we are planning to undertake some specific and targeted actions on how to build solutions from the perspective of young people, and also how, which I think is a very important element, is how the younger generations are getting organized and are getting engaged in this agenda.
I think we need to create and we are thinking of ways in which we can listen more to the young generation, how they can contribute and particularly on the field of solutions that are innovative and coming from the younger generations.
Two very important priority for IDA are the formation of the International Forum of Women Disability and the International Forum of Youth with Disability.
The objective is really to create a structure where we can listen, follow, develop with them, and get them involved in decision making and participation.
Thank you.
Good short answer.
We have a lady behind us who has a question.
Excellency distinguish guests, delegates, colleagues and friends, good afternoon.
My name is Shana Mohammed and I'm a 16-year-old high school student at Staten Island Technical High School, as well as the co founder and chief operating officer of Autism Without Voice.
Autism Without Voice is a youth led nonprofit that creates free educational, recreational, social science and fitness programs where individuals with autism and other disabilities can be meaningfully included, supported, and given opportunities to participate with dignity.
Through my work, I have firsthand seen how young people are not only affected by disability inclusion policies, but can also help bring these policies to life and to communities.
As the world looks ahead from 20 years of CRPD towards the Global Disability Summit, 2028, I believe that youth voices should be included more directly in shaping future priorities, partnerships, and action.
My question to the panel is what concrete policies or structures are being considered to ensure that young people and more specifically, youth led organizations are brought meaningfully to the table in the lead up to the Global Disability Summit 20 2028 rather than only being viewed as future leaders.
Thank you.
Thank.
Please feel free to answer either of you.
Maybe I'll just jump in for another perspective on supporting youth networks.
I absolutely think that we're investing at DRF in locally led youth leaders, and we are looking for opportunities to onboard those groups into the disability discourse.
I think there are natural ways that that can happen, but I think we also need to be a little bit cognizant of how difficult travel for young people can be particularly international travel and particularly with disability um, support needs.
So as the planning on the logistics begins to take shape, I think we need to be thinking about how are people going to get in the country? How are, which is an issue when people come to New York.
So I'm not suggesting that it's a unique issue in the region, but particularly for young people who haven't had experience of traveling, I think we're going to need to think really logistically about how we support people not just to arrive, but to be in the spaces and feel comfortable and safe to be participating in a forum that is often very difficult.
We have large policy conversations, so we need to create those spaces and make them feel welcoming.
Thank you.
I think we've got 3 minutes left just on 3 minutes for Jose to wrap up, Jose, please go ahead.
Just before that though, Qatar has a visa on arrival for most people, so you won't have that problem getting into the country.
Please go ahead.
So we will not have to afford $10,000 bond that many people had to for coming to Gosp.
So once again, thanks to all of our panelists, our representative Excellency from State of Qatar, doctor Caba, but even more importantly, everyone who took the time to come and join us for this side event.
We really wanted this first public event of the GDS to really transmit the sense that we are really open to a co create with you all the GDS 2028.
And when we say co create, we really mean it, I suppose because from the perspective of OBDs we really know what a big difference makes when we co create rather than when we consult.
It is absolutely fair and important to acknowledge the GDS is an evolving process that I think the first GDS was the opportunity to get for the first time ever together Second GDS was approved that we could even get together in the middle of the pandemic.
The third GDS was that moment in which we formalize the GDS, and the fourth GDS is going to be the opportunity to take the GDS to the next level.
But to take the GDS to the next level, we need the ownership, the commitment, and the willingness to work collectively, and that is the commitment that we are going to bring to this table we are bringing to this table as the co host of the GDS.
GDS should not be just something that the International Disability Alliance as permanent co host and in a rotating basis, co host with another country.
But the GDS, we hope that becomes a public good of the totality of the disability movement.
We are going to be announcing more ways in which we can be engaged This is just the beginning of the journey, but we really wanted to come here because we acknowledge the importance of the Conference of state parties to say that the GDS in 2028 will be the opportunity to come once again together and show to us, but even more importantly to the world that we are capable of not only advocate, but also to show that we are capable of generating knowledge, bringing solutions, and building partnerships.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.