2 and 3 April 2025 Deutsche Version Global Disability Summit (GDS)

Dear reader, did you have a teacher with disabilities when you were a child? No? Neither did I. And today, I find myself wondering how our societies might look if we would have had the chance to experience lessons of inclusion from early on. Why did I learn foreign languages but not some words in sign language? [...]

The third Global Disability Summit, which is taking place in Berlin, will conclude today with concrete outcomes for better inclusion worldwide. The global population includes around 1.3 billion persons with disabilities – 15 per cent of all the people in the world. Now, promoting inclusion is also to be an objective in at least 15 per cent of development projects. That is the intention at the heart of the Amman-Berlin Declaration adopted by more than 80 countries and organisations at the Summit today.

More than 3000 people from some 100 countries, many of them with a disability, are meeting in Berlin for the third Global Disability Summit starting today. The goal is to advance accessibility and inclusion worldwide. The summit is being co-hosted by Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the International Disability Alliance.

Special Olympics in Berlin ending today: Development Minister Svenja Schulze, who will be representing the German government at the Special Olympics closing ceremony, pledged today to continue efforts at the global level to advance the rights of people with disabilities. In 2025, Berlin will be hosting another important event: the Global Disability Summit, a global political summit for people with disabilities, will take place in Berlin in April 2025.

The Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (HCD) convened on Wednesday, in Amman, the first preparatory meeting on the Global Disability Summit (GDS) in 2025, which is due to be co-hosted by Germany, Jordan and the International Disability Alliance (IDA).

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. On that occasion, German Development Minister Svenja Schulze announced that the next Global Disability Summit, which will take place in the first half of 2025, would take place in Berlin, co-hosted by Germany, Jordan and the International Disability Alliance (IDA).