http://digital.nationalpost.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
19 Feb 2009
 National Post
SeeGLOBALonPageJV4
http://www.un.org/disabilities/

 UN makes inclusion a human right

		When Rebecca Beayni, then 23, was wheeled before a United
Nations committee in the summer of 2005 to make her presentation, it was a
moving and perhaps even seminal moment. 

Born with cerebral palsy, the Scarborough, Ont., woman has no verbal skills
and has intellectual challenges; her movements are severely restricted and
for any mobility she must rely on her wheelchair. Yet Rebecca has led a
full, rewarding and enjoyable life thanks to an enormously supportive
family, community and a lifetime of inclusion in all those events that shape
growing children. 
The need for inclusion was the point she wanted to drive home as that
committee drafted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities. She was the perfect example of the difference inclusion
can make. 

"She was exhausted but exhilarated afterwards," says her mother, Susan
Beayni. "I think she knew she had made a difference." 

The UN Convention has now been signed by about 50 nations. Canada signed in
March of 2007 but has yet to ratify the accord, says Anna MacQuarrie,
director of policy development and government relations at the Canadian
Association for Community Living, a driving force for those with
intellectual disabilities in Canada. 

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