UNGA Third Committee

Interactive Dialogue

National Statement delivered on 21 October 2021

Australia thanks the Committee Chair for providing the Committee’s report.

As the Committee chair highlighted today, persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the health, economic and social impacts of COVID-19, and may experience barriers that make it difficult to keep themselves safe from contracting COVID-19 and to access essential health services.

Persons with disabilities are not a homogenous group and due consideration should be given to intersectionality—the intersection of disability together with other factors, for example gender, age, religion or belief, race, or other status, which may heighten discrimination and increase the barriers to full, equal and meaningful participation in society.

Australia’s National Disability Strategy sets out a framework for continuing to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. A new ten-year Strategy is expected to be released at the end of 2021.

Disability inclusion is also a crosscutting priority for Australia’s international engagement on human rights, development and humanitarian action, including in our COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.

We ask: Can the Committee Chair expand upon the Committee’s efforts to address the multiple and intersecting issues facing by persons with disabilities, including as it relates to gender, race and age?

193 words