Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

The minimum benchmark was found particularlyhelpful in comparing official country rates to thisstandard since data, if available, are often not comparablebetween countries. Countries frequentlyuse different classifications, definitions and thresholdsbetween categories of ’disabled’ and ’non-disabled’,with the result that a child who is classifiedas, for example, having a mild impairment accordingto one system might be regarded as not being disabledat all under another.Because of the high degree of stigma associatedwith disability in certain countries, parents and otherfamily members may be reluctant to report thattheir child has a disability. Often these children havenot even had their birth registered, with the resultthat they are not known to health, social servicesor schools. In countries where literacy rates are lowand children frequently receive no formal schooling,some learning disabilities (such as dyslexia) maynever be identified. In countries where diagnosisis more advanced and the likelihood of survivalis greater or where state benefits are available tosupport persons with disabilities, there is a greaterincentive to register a child’s disability, thus contributingto a higher recorded prevalence of disability.The issue of identification is also linked to agegroup: it is not always easy to identify an impairmentin a very young child (a child under three yearsold, for example), and many impairments only becomeevident when a child starts attending school.Some children – especially in developing countries– will also acquire impairments through accidentsand illness, or in conditions of civil disturbance andarmed conflict.With regard to data collection, consistent and accurateinformation on children with disabilitieshelps to make an ’invisible’ population ’visible’ bydemonstrating the extent and, indeed, the normalityof disability. For example, in Gambia, following thepublication of the National Disability Survey of 1998,recognition of the rights of persons with disabilitiesincreased. The survey, administered to more than30,000 households by a task force that includedpersons with disabilities, was conducted to identifythe kinds of disabilities affecting children and theirgeographical distribution. The aim was to facilitateprovision of services to children with disabilities. 5Data on the types of impairment and the numbersof children affected can inform service deliveryand improve the provision of the appropriate aidsand appliances. It also enables the monitoring ofequality of opportunity and progress towards theachievement of economic, social, political andcultural rights. The most useful statistics are thosedisaggregated by gender, age, ethnic origin andurban/rural residence. It is important that figuresare further disaggregated in relation to the extentof impairment, the numbers of children withdisabilities living at home or placed in institutions,and the number enrolled in regular education orspecial education systems or receiving benefits.Although accurate and representative data ondisability are lacking in many parts of the world,international efforts are underway to improve thequality and availability of data. In 2005 the UnitedNations Statistics Division initiated the systematicand regular collection of basic statistics on humanfunctioning and disability by introducing a disabilitystatistics questionnaire to the existing datacollection system. 6Box 2.1 Changing levels of disability in CEE/CISand the Baltic StatesSince the break-up of the Soviet Union, manystates in the CEE/CIS and Baltic region haveregistered dramatic changes in the recordednumber of children with disabilities. The totalnumber of children recognized as disabled in officialdata across the region tripled, from around500,000 at the onset of transition to 1.5 millionin 2002. In Estonia, for example, the number ofchildren aged up to 15 with disabilities who wereregistered more than doubled from 1,737 in 1989to 4,722 in 2001, while in Ukraine the number ofchildren aged up to 17 with disabilities rose from93,156 in 1992 to 153,453 in 2001. i In Uzbekistan,according to official statistics, there were 33,280children registered as having an impairment in1992, while by 1999 this number had increasedto 123,750.These official data do not reflect the situationfully. There are additional numbers of childrenwith disabilities, especially in rural areas, whohave never been officially registered and whoare effectively hidden because of the stigma attachedto their condition.A detailed discussion of the background to andpossible reasons for these dramatic increasescan be found in the UNICEF report Children andDisability in Transition in CEE/CIS and BalticStates. ii The report attributes these changes toa combination of improved identification andreporting techniques, and in some cases, theincentive of improved cash benefits for childrenwith disabilities living in the community.Sources:iFigures provided from UNICEF Innocenti ResearchCentre, MONEE database. These data were used insupport of the report ’Children and Disability in Transitionin CEE/CIS and Baltic States’, Innocenti Insight,UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, 2005.iiIbid.Innocenti Digest No. 13Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities4