With the National Action Plan to Implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Federal Government is setting a process in motion which will exert a major influence in the next ten years not only on the lives of persons with disabilities, but on those of everyone in Germany. The idea of inclusion, which is the central guiding concept of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, will change our everyday culture. Germany intends to become inclusive.
More than one billion people in the world live with a disability. There are roughly 9.6 million in Germany, that is more than 11.7 percent of the population. The majority of them, 7.1 million, live with a serious disability, and 2.5 million with a less serious disability.
Despite the large number worldwide, only roughly 40 states - mostly industrialised nations - have regulations offering special protection for the rights of persons with disabilities. For this reason, the United Nations General Assembly decided in 2001 to develop proposals for a comprehensive international treaty to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. The result is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was passed in 2006. Germany ratified the Convention and its Protocol on 24 February 2009.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities lends concrete form to universal human rights for the special needs and circumstances of persons with disabilities. Inclusion is the universal position and the central principle for action. Henceforward, the principle of inclusion becomes the guideline and a clear orientation for the practical implementation of the Convention.
The goal is for people with and without disabilities to live in a self-determined manner and to live together in all areas of life from the beginning. On the basis of the principle of equal participation, the same quality and the same standard are expected to apply in the respective areas of life for persons with disabilities as for people without disabilities. It is a matter of equal participation in political, social, economic and cultural life, equal opportunities in education, vocational integration and the task of giving all people the opportunity to have a self-determined place in a accessible society. This includes support that is tailored to individual needs and to the respective life situation.