Mr. Lars Bosselmann:

I thank Ms O'Toole. I also thank members for their kind invitation to speak before the committee. As the Chairman has already said, in contrast to the millennium development goals, the sustainable development goals that were recently adopted and that will be in place for the next 15 years include a number of specific references to the rights of persons with disabilities. I will start by making some reflections on why that is important and why the disability movement has fought so hard for almost the past three years to get inclusion and recognition in the SDGs of the rights of persons with disabilities. These kind of global frameworks set and agree priorities for a long time.

When a topic is included, it is much easier to argue that it is important. When a topic is not included, it is almost impossible to talk to decision makers, officials and others about it because they say "It is definitely an important cause but it is not part of the globally agreed agenda" and it stays as a sort of side issue. That happened frequently with the millennium development goals, for example, in the case of disability. We are extremely happy that the potential now exists for this to change in the context of the sustainable development goals.

The second point I will make is that it is important for a topic to be included in the sustainable development goals from the beginning because they will be in place for 15 years, which is a long time. If a topic is not included, which is what happened with disability in the case of the millennium development goals, it is out for 15 years. It is very difficult to rectify that during the course of the implementation of global frameworks that have been agreed.

The third point I would like to make is an obvious one. The global frameworks determine to a large extent where the money goes. If that were not the case, why would priorities be set? If the cause one is defending is not part of the agenda, money will not be spent on it.

My final point relates to what happens when an issue is not included in an agenda such as the millennium development goals or the sustainable development goals. What is not in is not measured. The big advantage of the sustainable development goals from our perspective is that disability is included. It is there, so it needs to be measured, reported and monitored. That is one of the most significant things the sustainable development goals have the potential to achieve.

I will explain the importance of measurement. As a result of the exclusion of disability from the millennium development goals, today in 2015 we have a fairly weak body of evidence with regard to disability. There are good examples of country studies and case studies and there are good research pieces here and there, but overall we have a fairly weak body of evidence regarding how many people with disabilities there are, where they are living globally, what their needs are and how they can be included in different sectors such as education and employment. That is why it is so important for the collection of data to be improved. We need to have data available so that we know where people with disabilities live, what their needs are and how policies can better address their rights and needs. We need a much better base of data and evidence than we have at present. One of the achievements of the sustainable development goals is that they foresee making data disaggregation a reality in their implementation. For those who want to have the precise reference, this is set out in goal 17.

Implementation has already been mentioned. Of course the sustainable development goals, like all global frameworks, will only be as good as we make their implementation. We all have a role to play - I refer to civil society, parliamentarians, Governments and UN agencies - in living up to the high expectations that have been raised. We have to be honest and say that expectations have been raised with regard to disability and many other causes. Of course expectations are high because disability is included this time. We want to see progress in implementation as well as inclusion in the document. For that reason, it is important to look at monitoring, at how to translate global goals to the national reality, at the indicators and at how to measure progress. Parliamentarians and many others have a role to play in all of that. My colleague, Dr. Keogh, will say a few words and offer a few thoughts and suggestions from our side on the concrete things the committee can do to make the goals for people with disabilities a reality.