Thursday at Karibe Convention Center, as a prelude to the celebration of March 8, the "International Women's Day," Gérald Oriol Jr, Secretary of State for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Haiti, in his speech, focused particularly to a particular battle, the access of girls to school.

Speech by Gérald Oriol Jr :

"Dear friends,

We are here today as a prelude to the commemoration of the International Women's Day we wish to pay particular attention to a particular battle, that for the access of girls to school.

I would like briefly make my contribution to the work of this day. Being a girl is certainly not a handicap. However, this includes specific vulnerabilities and the difficulty of exercising fundamental rights. It is not necessary to brainstorm to understand that if being a girl is often complicated, being a girl and have a disability is a very special challenge.

The combination of vulnerabilities in a disabled female is true, unfortunately in many abuses even in crimes. However, if these extreme cases normally raise indignation and are the subject of some attention, we can not be sure it is the same for a simple problem and almost universal : girls are less educated than boys, and access for persons with disabilities to education adapted, is still to conquer. So what to say about girls with disabilities ?

I do not say thislike this problem should overshadow the other. Worry about girls' access to school, does not mean we will no longer make an effort so that the boys are accessing more and better too. No ! But there in the struggle for the rights of especially vulnerable people, a beauty, a particular dignity, which is also extremely efficient.

If I focus on discrimination against disabled girlsin terms of schooling, it is under the fundamental principle of equal dignity of all human persons. If I work for girls with disabilities are less excluded from school, I raise my personal dignity and I raise the dignity of my community, certainly, but I also pushes schools, government, associations, parents, teachers themselves to act in the sense of better access to quality education for ALL !

While in the material world, working to pay Paul often amounts to robbing Peter, in the moral world, in the fight for human rights, working to pay Paul will help Peter to be better pay. In this sense, I invite everyone to work in the field for which it has developed a particular sensitivity, because no one can also fight on all fronts, but without never forget that in the root of all the fighting for human rights as their term, there is the untouchable dignity of every human person : our struggles complement each other, we trace the same path.

The advancement of the right of girls to be educated and those with disabilities to access appropriate education do not meet only in the struggle for disabled girls. They meet in a broader struggle for universal access to education of our children, itself linked to the struggle for the respect of the human person in all its dimensions.

Thank you."

Gérald Oriol. Jr

Secretary of State for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Haiti

HL/ HaitiLibre