Savior of Disability Rights - Kalle Könkkölä
[Passing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to let the disabled people worldwide live in dignity]
 
Disabled people are not powerless but have different abilities as compared with non-disabled people
 

- Kalle Könkkölä

Determined to help more than 700 million disabled people around the world to live in dignity
Kalle Könkkölä was born in Helsinki on January 16, 1950. He was diagnosed with muscular atrophy by Arvo Ylppo, an attending doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Finland (Lastenlinnan). He later performed with a tracheostomy operation due to pneumonia that affecting the trachea. The doctor sentenced him that he could not live beyond 30 years old and had to rely on a wheelchair and respirator for life. However, he survived miraculously and had lived past 40 years. He determined to help more than 700 million disabled people worldwide to live in dignity.

He spent his youth in Äänekoski. After graduating from senior high school, he was admitted to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki and founded The Threshold Association (Kynnys). He committed to safeguard the essential protection, human rights, the rights to expand barrier-free facilities, etc. for people with disabilities.

He had worked in the Finnish Parliament for 19 years, was the co-founder of the Green League (Vihreäliitto), the first chairperson of the Green League, the first member of Finnish Parliament with a disability, and the founder of Disability Peoples’ International (DPI). In 1998, he led the Finnish Foundation for the People with Disabilities (Abilis-säätiö) to affect the United Nations, the World Bank, the Balkans, Africa, Europe, Asia, people from all walks of life to send love to all levels of people with disabilities.

Contribution to the passing of UNCRPD
One of his most significant achievements was the promotion of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) on December 3, 2006.

The convention entered into force in June 2016, meaning that countries must respect people with disabilities and use the agreement as a legal basis.

Whereby, over the past 40 years, Kalle Könkkölä had been devoted his life to international cooperation, including the development policies for people with disabilities, grassroots development cooperation for people with disabilities, humanitarianism, etc. His example and encouragement are crucial to people with disabilities in many countries, speaking for more than 700 million people with disabilities worldwide, allowing more than 700 million people with disabilities worldwide to live in dignity, and illuminating more than 700 million people with disabilities around the world. He deserved to be praised as a “Savior of Disability Rights,” and stood out among 2,723 recommended candidates from all over the world and earned him the “22nd Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2019” from Taiwan’s Chou Ta-Kuan Cultural and Educational Foundation.

The Foundation welcomes all walks of life around the world at any time to recommend candidates of life warriors who possess the contexts of endeavors, love, braveness, and achievement.
 
The Fervent Global Love of Lives Medal - Chou Ta-Kuan Cultural and Educational Foundation, Taiwan
Recommended hotline: 886-2-29178770
Fax: 886-2-29178768
Address: 3F, No. 52, Mingde Road, Xindien District, New Taipei City 231, Taiwan
Website: http://www.ta.org.tw
Email: ta88ms17@gmail.com

Proved the doctor’s wrong
Kalle was born in Helsinki on January 16, 1950. There are four children in his family, his father is an engineer, and his mother is an administrative staff.

He was diagnosed with muscular atrophy by Arvo Ylppo, the attending doctor of the Children’s Hospital of Finland (Lastenlinnan). The doctor sentenced him that he could not live beyond a year and had to rely on a wheelchair for life. Affected with pneumonia while studying in university, he underwent a gastrostomy operation and had to rely on a respirator for life.

His parents also thought that he could not live long and drew a little angel on the blackboard. However, he survived miraculously, helping more than 700 million people with disabilities around the world to live in dignity, touching and stirring the world, and contributing to passing the UNCRPD. He has let people with disabilities around the world to live with hopes until September 11, 2018, where he died at the age of 68.

Life is a legend
The little guy on the electric chair who had done a gastrostomy operation needed 24 hours of personal help, but he was able to break the barriers for everything he did and everywhere he went.

Finnair had to install a power outlet for his respirator in their business class cabin.

He enrolled in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki. At that time, the university did not have barrier-free ramps, which made it difficult for people with disabilities to move. He and the university students worked together and finally made the school build barrier-free ramps for the benefit of thousands of disabled teachers and students.

When he was elected as a member of the Finnish parliament, the parliament had to let him share with others on the podium by especially building a barrier-free ramp. He had become the first person to speak on the speech podium, which caused a sensation throughout the country.

As a disabled Finnish ambassador, he traveled extensively around the world, participating in chief conferences mostly concerned with disability, and visiting countries at the southern hemisphere in the world such as Asia, Africa, Central and South America, etc., as consultants and organizers for development and welfare issues for the disabled. He even succeeded in passing the UNCRPD on December 3, 2006, with the goals of protecting and ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all people with disabilities. All countries must respect the disabled people, and use the convention as the legal basis.

In the movement for the disabled, he left an important one - he survived not only beyond anyone’s expectations, but also became an international savior for the disabled, paving the way and defending the rights for the disabled.

Poverty is the leading cause of disabled people
According to the UNCRPD, people with disabilities are people with long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 700 million people in the world suffering from various disabilities, accounting for about 10% of the world’s total population. Eighty percent of the disabled, i.e., more than 400 million people who live in developing countries are the areas that most lacking the facilities needed for the disabled. On a global scale, people with disabilities still have many inconveniences in participating in social activities, and their living standards are low.

If you count the immediate family members of a person with disabilities, the number of people affected by disabilities is more than one billion.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that disability causes poverty, and the loss of education and health opportunities, resulting in the exclusion and discrimination against people with disabilities and their families.

In developing countries, 80 to 90% of people with disabilities are unemployed, and poverty is the main cause.

In industrialized countries, 50 to 70% of disability is usually congenital or caused by accident.

The leading causes of poverty are malnutrition, dirty water, lack of medical resources, and especially maternity counseling services, which are most likely to cause permanent disabilities.

Even with medical services, doctors’ inexperience can result in misdiagnosed that delays the best time for gold treatment. For example, the most common cause of blindness is cataract.

People with disabilities are subject to prejudice around the world, especially in developing countries.

When the local parents give birth to a disabled child, they consider they have been cursed and concealed their child, thus often unable to obtain medical services.

One of the biggest problems is that it is difficult for disabled children to go to school. Besides the difficulty in going to school, a lack of correct education method has led them to be ill-educated and discriminated. Therefore, the only way for the disabled people to earn a living is to beg, and women with disabilities can suffer double discrimination because of the gender issue, the situation of which is particularly tormenting.

Hence, people with disabilities are also considered as a social burden and unable to live independently.

Due to their vulnerability and defensiveness, people with disabilities can easily become victims of violence and sexual abuse.

Disability is a problem of social self-sacrifice
Not only can the UNCRPD address the integration of people with disabilities into the surrounding physical environment, but can also expand to the equal enjoyment of rights and the elimination of legal and social barriers to participating in social activities, health, education, employment, and personal development.

The countries that ratify the convention are bound by law and should not only treat people with disabilities as victims or minorities but should also treat them as legal subjects with defined rights. These countries must bring their laws in line with the international standards set out in the convention.

The convention raises the human rights standards - from the “perspective of disabled people,” the application of the Convention will enable them to have the same citizenship as ordinary people after experiencing long-term historical social discrimination.

The convention considers that disability is only a description of the state of the disabled and the external environment in which they are contacting with, rather than being inherent in one person.

The society itself makes the disabled people “incapable” when exercising their human rights as citizens. Based on the fact that the convention uses social and human rights relations, such a model has replaced the disability concept under the original “medical model.”

This approach embodies the social perspective of the WHO’s “International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health,” known more commonly as ICF. The WHO believes that disability is a universal human experience, not just a minority: everyone may experience a hardship of health damage and suffer from a certain disability.

The human rights of the disabled are recognized
The UN has seven landmark human rights conventions that protect the rights of women, children, refugees, and other groups. There has been no specific global convention until the UNCRPD entered into force on May 3, 2008 to solve the needs and rights of people with disabilities

Although some existing conventions also protect people with disabilities, it is increasingly evident that the specific obstacles faced by people with disabilities in the enjoyment of their civil, economic, political, social, and cultural rights have not received sufficient attention in the past.

In fact, people with disabilities seem to have become a “blind spot” in human rights both at the international level and the national level, and the UNCRPD comes in handy to fill this gap.

As stated in Article 1, the purpose of the UNCRPD is to “promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

The convention has made a shift in attitudes and methods towards persons with disabilities, and treats persons with disabilities as active members of society who are rights holders, who can assert claims, and determine their own lives, not as the goal of charities.

In recent years, the rise of the human rights movement has made the world recognize the importance of people with disabilities in development.

The agreement has been signed by 147 countries, but some countries do not regard disability as important because it also causes alternative social problems.

According to the UN, the convention allows people with disabilities to no longer be seen as victims and objects of philanthropists, but as people who have the power and can decide for themselves.

Chris Sullivan, Vice President of Merrill Lynch, who is born with deafness, said: “Everyone should treat people with disabilities as normal people, not people with disabilities.” This convention will mean that everyone in the world must change their mindset.

The convention establishes global standards for the rights of persons with disabilities
According to the WHO, the number of people with disabilities worldwide continues to increase. Population growth, medical progress, and the aging of the world’s population are all contributing to the increase in the number of people with disabilities.

In countries or regions where the life expectancy of the population exceeds 70 years, the average time spent with the disabilities during the life of the individual is about eight years (11.5% of the life cycle). 

In many countries or regions, there are still no laws related to disabilities.

According to a survey by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, only one-third of countries or territories have anti-discrimination and other laws specifically targeting persons with disabilities.

The convention will prompt governments to enact relevant laws or improve existing laws to meet the established standards.

There are many other advantages of the convention, such as: it has universally recognized the global legal standards for the rights of persons with disabilities, it has determined the content of human rights principles and the various applications for persons with disabilities, it is an authoritative global reference for domestic laws and policies; it provides effective oversight mechanisms (including oversight by expert bodies and implementation reports by governmental and non-governmental organizations), it provides the assessment criteria and implementation standards, and it has established a framework for international cooperation. In the process of considering ratification of the convention in the country or region, it also helps to explain the public’s awareness.

The disabled organizations have fully participated in the consultation process of the convention and played an important role in the drafting of the convention.

The convention recognizes reproductive rights, and it is the first universal human rights convention dealing with sexual health and reproductive health.

Studies have shown that when people with disabilities have become physically ill, they are three times more likely to be sexually abusive than ordinary people, and are at greater risk of exposure to HIV and AIDS.

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