OREANDA-NEWS. November 02, 2009. UNDP Kazakhstan launched National Human Development Report 2009 "From Exclusion to Equality: Realising the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Kazakhstan" in the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The report, which is the country's first comprehensive study on the status of persons with disabilities, outlines a road map of measures the government needs to take to meet its obligations and improve the standard of living for persons with disabilities.

"We welcome the fact that by signing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities last December Kazakhstan became one of the countries, which confirmed an intention to change the human rights system in the country,” says Haoliang Xu, UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan.

According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan there are 466,300 persons with disabilities of all categories in Kazakhstan, or about 3% of the entire population. One third of this number are people of productive age, and 10% are children. Unfortunately, in a great number of countries worldwide including Kazakhstan there are multiple infrastructural, physical, legal, communicational, psychological and other barriers standing in the way of the complete realization of the rights of disabled persons.

Human Development Report 2009 is designed to attract attention to the problems of disabled persons and their families to bring changes to secure their dignity, rights and well-being, and lay a foundation for profound legal changes. It was the first time when online discussions were used during preparation of the Report allowing to get feedback from stakeholders, including disabled persons from all over our country. The report was released using accessible formats: Braille fonts and DAISY audio. The picture used on the cover page titled "All is in your hands" is the work of Kassiet Omarova, a young blind artist.

The Human Development Report is published with the technical assistance of the British Embassy in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.