Mission Statement

To promote and defend the human rights of persons with a disability throughout the Americas

Vision

Inclusion Inter-American's vision is outlined in the Declaration of Managua, drafted on December 3rd, 1993. Used as an affirmative instrument, its states:

"We want a society based on equity, justice, equality and interdependence… a society that ensures a better living standard for everyone, without discrimination of any kind… a society that recognizes and accepts diversity as a fundamental part for social coexistence… a society whose priority is the human condition of all its constituents… that ensures their dignity, their rights, their self-determination, their contribution to community living and their full access to the social assets."

Principles

The present reality of persons with disabilities throughout the Americas and the Declaration of Managua are the main sources from which Inclusion Inter-Americana nurtures its guiding principles. Other instruments used are those resulting from the project "Partnerships in Community Living", and other international conventions on human rights and minorities.

These guiding principles refer to:

• The promotion of values and ethics, which state that every human being has a social value, and deserves respect independently of her/his personal and material conditions. Regarding the person with a disability, we reaffirm her/his condition as a citizen, with the same rights as everyone, able to make decisions and defend her/his own criteria, able to become an active citizen that defends his/her rights, a stakeholder with access to every social asset with equity, an active builder of her/his future, able to create a family and ensure their welfare, and contribute to community development. We consider persons with a disability as legitimate and necessary speakers, who with the motto: nothing about us without us, are irreplaceable by other advocates. This guiding principle states that persons with a disability have the right to advocate for a more comprehensive educational system, for decent public health services, a job, a house and the elimination of physical, mental, social, and cultural barriers;

• The role of society where change, which will allow new attitudes and practices to develop, has to occur by overcoming the medical approach in a way that ensures full integration into community life, that values diversity, accepts differences and deals with the obstacles that oppose these goals;

• The organizations that strive for comprehensive, timely and specialized care for people with severe disabilities, who face open and explicit practices of segregation, that organize with the purpose of defending human rights, that partner with other organizations, which help to oversee and coordinate policies, plans and programs, share ideas and experiences, make alliances with other social sectors and project themselves internationally.

Objectives

General

• To dignify the human condition of people with disabilities, through the struggle to achieve their full inclusion into society within a framework that respects their social, political, economic and cultural rights.

• To contribute to the development of social interrelationship models based on justice, equality, and interdependence, through which the welfare of persons with a disability, their families and their communities is promoted.

• To strengthen the national organizations that function as dynamic, effective and active instruments whose commitment and actions will allow Inclusion Inter-Americana and its constituent organizations to achieve their goals.

• To provide practical and theoretical contributions to the evolving processes of knowledge and action in the field of community inclusion of persons with disability by systematizing their experiences.

Specific

• To contribute to the process of formulating and implementing national policies aimed at providing a voice for persons with disabilities, within a respectful framework to the particular conditions of each country that is part of Inclusion Inter-Americana.

• To promote inclusive education processes that contribute to the social inclusion of persons with a disability, through the national members of Inclusion Inter-Americana and their hemispheric activities.

• To support and encourage the development of processes aimed at transforming current levels of public awareness of the situation of persons with a disability, through a systematic dissemination of an approach based in the respect for human rights, as it is written in the vision statement and principles of Inclusion Inter-Americana.

• To promote self-advocacy in a way that persons with a disability become legitimate speakers in favor of their rights, and present claims in their own voice.

• To contribute to the increase of citizenship participation in public affairs, which is not to be understood as passive voluntarism, but instead, as a way for all people and their organizations to have access to decision-making spaces.

• To raise participation levels in existing community development processes, and in the absence of these, to generate them as a way to change mindsets and actions based on exclusion from social goods and services.

• To contribute to the dialog and interaction between government institutions in charge of providing social services and civil society organizations that aim to improve the quality of such services in order to meet the expectations of the beneficiaries and their organizations.

• To disseminate the vision and principles of Inclusion Interamericana throughout the international community so that these can be internalized and included in the plans and programs of international development agencies.