This new Innocenti Insight looks at how children with disabilities and their families fare in the rapidly changing environment of this wide region, since transition in the early 1980’s. It builds upon the significant body of research and policy reflections accrued at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (IRC) with the support of national statistical offices in the 27 countries of the region. UNICEF IRC has tracked and explored the impact on children and their families of economic and social changes in the region since transition began. This report draws upon three new pieces of research that include data, a qualitative survey and first-person interviews. The results highlight the legacies of the past, the momentum for change and areas where action is further needed. Institutionalisation, segregation and discrimination are still prominent features of the environment in which children with disabilities live across the region.

This report presents the findings of the Thematic Group on Violence against Disabled Children, convened by UNICEF at UN Headquarters in New York on July 28, 2005 and charged with the task of providing comments and recommendations on violence against disabled children to be made available for the UN Secretary General’s Report on Violence against Children. In this report, key issues on violence against children with disabilities will be reviewed. Some of the issues raised will be familiar to those who work on violence against children. Other issues will be disability-specific and even experts and advocates on violence against children may be unfamiliar with them or have not thought deeply about the implications that such practices have in relation to violence against and abuse of disabled children.

This publication gathers articles of the theme of Child Friendly Schools and Care & Support in Schools. The first article of the UNGEI FORUM provides an overview of the first Multi-country Child Friendly Schools for Africa Capacity Development Workshop held in Malawi in August 2005. The following three articles highlight what the Schools for Africa Initiative offers to the participating countries. The article by Tizie Maphalala introduces the Education Ministers’ Forum on Care and Support in Schools held in Swaziland in September 2005. What follows are reports written by young people from Botswana and Lesotho who participated in the Swaziland Forum.

This paper highlights good examples of inclusive education initiatives in Cambodia, China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. In addition, one chapter presents an example of model legislation and policy supporting inclusive education, while another showcases a unique model school where children with disabilities make up 10 percent of the student population and innovative methods have been adopted to make the educational experience non-discriminatory, participatory and child-centred. The final chapter sums up the lessons learned and provides recommendations for “ways forward” in meeting the goals of equal access to quality education for children with disabilities in the next decade.

In this paper, findings from the global UNICEF survey on Young People with Disabilities, are discussed. Over 200 organizations and advocacy groups representing disabled people and adolescents with disabilities in 40 countries were asked to respond to a survey on current social, educational and recreational opportunities available to adolescents and youth with disabilities. In addition, medical, religious and social organizations were asked to provide information on programmes that include adolescents and youth with disabilities. The global demographic, social and economic issues encountered by young people with disabilities are presented in this paper, and some of the innovative programmes and approaches that have successfully reached these most needy children, are highlighted.

This paper documents the intent for data collection on child disability via household surveys, specifically via the second round of the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS2). During the period 1999-2001 a total of 65 countries implemented MICS, of which 22 included a disability module of ten questions measuring activities and participation of children 2-9 years of age. Parents/caretakers of these children responded questions about the following impairments: vision, hearing, understanding, movement, crisis/fits, learning, speak, speech (3-9 years old), name of objects (2 years old), and mental.

This document presents observations made by UNICEF on the Draft Disability Convention in order to reinforce and complement the CRC. After 8 rounds of negotiations, the Convention's final text now includes several child-specific references, raising the profile of children with disabilities and imposing obligations on governments to ensure they are afforded equal respect for their rights.

This power point presentation, prepared for the 2005 Population Association of America (PAA) Meeting, held in Philadelphia in April 2005, displays, in a concise way, the main facts on Child Disability presented in the paper Cappa c., Loaiza E., Measuring Children’s Disability via Household Surveys: The MICS Experience.

This power point presentation displays, in a concise way, the UNICEF approach and action for preventing disability, improving inclusion, ensuring equal access to social services, protecting children with disabilities from violence, abuse and exploitation and promoting an environment of acceptance, understanding and non-discrimination.