(Transcript from SBS World News Australia)
Grammy award winning singer Stevie Wonder has addressed a high level United Nations meeting designed to encourage countries to do more to improve the lives of people living with disabilities.
Stevie Wonder is the UN Messenger of Peace and he joined more than 800 representatives of people with disabilities at the event in New York.
"I've always been a man of dreams and hopes. I know that working together, we can create a world where persons with disabilities facing no limits."
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Stevie Wonder is perhaps the world's most famous blind man.
In many ways, he's unlike most of the one billion people living with a disability.
But the fact that Stevie Wonder is rich and lives in a developed country arguably makes him the perfect choice to highlight the plight of a group of people described as the world's largest minority.
The UN General Assembly President John Ashe told the delegates that, unlike the American singer, the majority of disabled people live in poverty in developing countries.
"Let us take note of the fact that the vast majority of persons with disabilities live in developing countries and experience disproportionally high rates of poverty. In all parts of the world, they are more likely to experience discrimination and prejudice. Persons with disabilities are subjected to a range of barriers and many are regularly denied the right to education, social security, employment, health and other services that are available to the rest of the general public."
As world leaders gathered for a new session of the UN General Assembly, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon encouraged countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In 2008, Australia was one of the first Western countries to ratify the treaty, a move that helped to lay the foundations for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Mr Ban says too many countries are yet to sign.
"The landmark Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a powerful tool for inclusive development. I urge all countries to ratify it without delay. I know you agree with me and Stevie Wonder, we need it signed, sealed and delivered."
Much of the discussion at the meeting involved stressing the importance of directly addressing the rights of people with disabilities in what occurs post 2015.
That's when the countries have around the world are supposed to have achieved the eight Millennium Development Goals set by the UN, though many will fall short.
Stevie Wonder says for society to be inclusive of people with disabilities, it's essential that they have equal access to education, knowledge and information.
"We need to make sure that real participation and voices of persons with disabilities are included in everything we do for peace and development around the world. As we look to the future in the advancement of disabilities, inclusive development, let us all in our own way, be messengers of peace."
