Paralympiques 2020: launch of a global campaign for people with disabilities

A global campaign for the world's 1.2 billion people with disabilities was launched Thursday in Tokyo under the leadership of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), supported by a wide range of international organizations. Named WeThe15, the campaign aims to be "the largest human rights movement" ever launched, representing the 15% of the world's population with disabilities, according to UN figures. Bringing together organisations from the worlds of sport, human rights and the arts and supported by businesses, the campaign is launched less than a week before the opening of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo (24 August-5 September). "We think it's really going to be a game changer," IPC spokesman Craig Spence told AFP. "The Paralympics in Tokyo can be a platform for that. It's incredible." More than 125 monuments around the world, from the Empire State Building in New York to the Colosseum in Rome, will be illuminated Thursday with the purple color adopted by WeThe15, which is inspired by other human rights movements such as Black Lives Matter or #MeToo. "We want to put disability at the centre of the inclusion agenda," Parsons said. "There has been so much progress in recent years in terms of racial, sexual and gender diversity. But disability has been forgotten, although it is at the crossroads of these three areas."

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