Persons with Disabilities

"The challenges facing Small Island Developing States are likely to hit persons with disabilities particularly hard, and the SAMOA Pathway correspondingly includes ten clear references to disability. The effects of climate change, including natural disasters make persons with disabilities disproportionately affected. During such emergency situations, persons with disabilities experience increased challenges with separation from family, loss of assistive and mobility devices, and barriers to accessing information. Additionally, the rate of disability increases during an emergency due to direct trauma, illness from poor living conditions, a lack of trained and skilled staff, and the breakdown of health services, an increase in psychological stress and lack of rehabilitation services. Therefore we urge Member States to make in their climate resilience programmes and disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies and policies disability a core, cross-cutting theme."