Wethe15 Launches To Put Disability ‘at The Heart’ Of Inclusion Agenda
A new movement, spearheaded by the IPC and the International Disability Alliance (IDA), aims to end discrimination towards persons with disabilities and campaign for disability visibility, accessibility, and inclusion.
WeThe15 is a new movement aiming to put disability ‘right at the heart’ of the inclusion agenda, alongside ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. It will work with governments, businesses, and the public over the next decade to initiate change for the 1.2 billion people with disabilities – which the group says is the world’s largest marginalised group, making up 15% of the global population.
The movement was created by adam&eveDDB, the IPC, and International Disability Alliance, in partnership with Pentagram, Pulse Films, FleishmanHillard, Porter Novelli and Portland.
It will bring together 20 organisations including UN Human Rights, UNESCO and the International Disability Alliance, The Valuable 500, and the Special Olympics, and will campaign for access to fundamental rights such as healthcare, education, and employment.
“WeThe15 aspires to be the biggest ever human rights movement for persons with disabilities and aims to put disability right at the heart of the inclusion agenda, alongside ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation,” said IPC President Andrew Parsons.
“By uniting several leading international organisations and the world’s 1.2 billion persons with disabilities behind one common movement, we will make a tangible and well overdue difference for the planet’s largest marginalised group.
“Sport, and events such as the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, are hugely powerful vehicles to engage global audiences. By partnering with Special Olympics, Invictus Games, and Deaflympics, there will be at least one major international sport event for persons with disabilities to showcase WeThe15 each year between now and 2030. These sports events add great value to the campaign and underline the hugely positive impact sport can have on society. I strongly believe WeThe15 could be a real game-changer for persons with disabilities.”
Ana Lucia Arellano, Chairperson of the International Disability Alliance, said: “Over the past 20 years, a lot has been achieved regarding the inclusion of persons with disabilities. We successfully advocated for the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as to be included in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
“Looking into the future, we recognise that there is still a lot to be done if we want to achieve the full inclusion of more than a billion persons we represent. We need new creative and innovative approaches, and we need much broader coalition to achieve that. WeThe15 has a unique opportunity and responsibility to achieve exactly that – to be a platform where more and new actors will come together making the ‘Nothing about us without us’ a real change for all persons with disabilities.”
Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, Patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, added: “One of the reasons why I was inspired to create the Invictus Games was to help destigmatise physical and invisible injuries and give the men and women who have experienced them a platform to show the world that they and we can accomplish anything, when we put our mind to it. Everybody at the Invictus Games Foundation is honoured to join the WeThe15 campaign and believe in its mission to inspire meaningful change in communities around the world.”
The campaign sets out to shift the narrative around people with disabilities away from one in which they are either stereotyped as objects of pity or put on a pedestal – to emphasise that disability is not an ‘other’ – it is humanity.
Buildings including the London Eye, Edinburgh Castle, and the Titanic Building in Belfast (pictured above) will light up purple in support of the movement, as well as global landmarks such as Niagara Falls, the CN Tower and Tokyo’s Rainbow Bridge.
