Seminar on Promoting Comprehensive Sexuality Education and HIV Prevention among Persons with Disabilities in China

Ms. Hong Ping, Deputy Secretary-General of China Family Planning Association,

Ms. Tang Zhanxin, Founder of Beijing Hope Home for Spinal Cord Injury, 

Partners and friends from communities of persons with disabilities

UN colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning!

Let me start by congratulating my colleagues from UNAIDS, UNESCO and UNFPA for organizing today’s event. We are gathered today to discuss a critical issue often neglected by society, to improve the well-being of persons with disabilities through the lens of promoting comprehensive sexuality education, reproductive health and HIV prevention.

People with disabilities are equal members of the human family. About 15 per cent of the world’s population, or an estimated 1 billion people, live with either physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments. Of these, 85 million live in China, the world's largest group of people with disabilities. They suffer from all sorts of barriers, stigma and discrimination in everyday life – limited employment and education opportunities, disability-unfriendly public facilities, and even people’s negative attitudes. These lead to further inequalities and, in turn, worsen their physical and mental health.

Disability inclusion, underpinned by the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to Leave No One Behind, is a cross-cutting theme of the entire UN system. The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, could not be clearer at the Global Disability Summit this February, when he said, “Persons with disabilities are often among the poorest and most disadvantaged members of the community. They must be at the front and centre of our efforts. We need to act decisively to realize and promote the rights of persons with disabilities in every corner of the world and in every facet of life”.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities calls on State parties to ensure the human rights of persons with disabilities, to participate and be included in all spheres of life, including the right to access sexual and reproductive health services. Persons with disabilities are more than objects of charity. They are subjects with rights, capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their own lives.

However, in practice, the needs of persons with disabilities for sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention services are often considered unimportant and therefore deprioritized. This is wrong. As shown by the numbers, in sub-Saharan Africa, the risk of HIV infection is 1.48 times higher among men with disabilities and 2.21 times higher among women with disabilities, compared with peers without disabilities.

Among the 85 million people in China with disabilities, more than 20 million are deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Many face various sexual and reproductive health issues, including unintended pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, due to limited comprehensive sexuality education materials and insufficient sexual and reproductive health services.

Data also shows that only 40% of young persons with disabilities surveyed know basic HIV prevention knowledge, 50% lower than their peers without disabilities. To address this issue, the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026 and the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS have underscored that the access of persons with disabilities to HIV services and information should be ensured.  This commitment must be turned into action. Here, the UN in China has put forward some notable initiatives. For example, with the joint efforts of UNESCO and UNAIDS, a video series of comprehensive sexuality education in Chinese sign languages was produced. While this is a good start, we need to drive further for more and better HIV and sexual and reproductive health services catered to persons with disabilities.

I believe today’s discussion with the engagement of the leading experts and service providers in this field will deepen our thinking and pave the way for taking more concrete actions.

I encourage my UN colleagues to keep up with your excellent work and expand collaboration with our partners in China. Specifically, I would like to propose three main areas of cooperation for your consideration.

1. Boost efforts in disability-inclusive data disaggregation. High-quality, accessible, trusted, timely, open, and reliable disaggregated data is critical for decision-making. I look forward to more cooperation in data collection and analysis to better support the design and development of more targeted comprehensive sexuality education programmes, serving and benefiting more persons with disabilities.
2. Develop and introduce inclusive policies to ensure equal access of young persons with disabilities to sexual and reproductive health education and HIV prevention information. It’s good to see the establishment of inter-department cooperation and social participation. However, there is an increasing need and urgency to include persons with disabilities in the implementation of plans and policies to address targeted interventions. Meanwhile, it is also important to improve the awareness and capacity of service providers to enable them to deliver inclusive HIV-related services to persons with disabilities.  
3. Empower persons with disabilities to take the lead in HIV and sexual and reproductive health programmes. Community-led and people-centred HIV responses are at the core of the Global AIDS Strategy (2021-2026) to achieve the goal of ending inequality and ending AIDS by 2030. Persons with disabilities know their needs best, so supporting peer-led programmes can overcome communication barriers and achieve optimal outcomes. Some of the community partners are here with us today. You are the true heroes. We are looking forward to continuing working with you closely on this.

Together we must continue advocating and campaigning for the rights of persons with disabilities and the elimination of discrimination and exclusion.  

Finally, I would like to thank all the partners from the government, the academia and the community-based organizations for your relentless efforts in serving persons with disabilities. I also extend my sincere gratitude to our friends with disabilities for your participation. The UN will work in solidarity with you to leave no one behind.

I hope today’s discussion is a success as I wish you, on a related note, a happy International Day of Sign Languages.

Thank you!