Dialogue is the solution, not war. We learn this from the history of two world wars that produced millions of persons with disabilities and millions of dead. War is the greatest threat to all life, human rights, the environment, society and the economy.
We, persons with disabilities all over the world, are working hard to achieve human rights through the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and we know that war will destroy our achievements — as we affirmed on 24 June 1982, when Disabled Peoples’ International adopted its Peace Statement at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan; in Lebanon in 1981; in Croatia in 1993; and regularly in several statements since.
DPI, as a global network of organisations of persons with disabilities, reiterates that the best way to protect human rights is to negotiate and talk with all stakeholders — not to make guns talk. DPI supports, without discrimination, Ukrainian and Russian people with disabilities, as well as all those around the world who face the same discrimination, because we, people with disabilities, know that life does not need competition but solidarity.
Civil society appeals to politicians that human rights must be protected for citizens living under any situation, and that dialogue must be given priority — strongly and repeatedly.
