I have just returned from Bangkok, Thailand where I represented L’Arche International at the 2nd International Conference on Intellectual Disabilities/Mental Retardation (November 5-8) co-sponsored by the World Health Organization. The three objectives to the conference were:

1. To build on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as launch the Atlas: Global Resources for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (www.who.Int/bookorders)
2. To discuss ways to implement and strengthen initiatives regarding intellectual disabilities
3. To consolidate the international network of interested persons that has been created over the last few years.

The term mental retardation is used by 75% of the world to describe intellectual disability. There was a strong movement at the meeting to eliminate this term from the heading of the next conference and to help remove it from common usage.

The presentation that struck me the most was given by Trevor Parmenter (Foundation Professor of Developmental Disability in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney, Australia and Director of the Centre for Developmental Disability Studies). In his presentation he pointed out a number of threats to services to people with intellectual disabilities around the world:

* Economic globalization and utilitarian individualism
* Neo-liberal economic policies
* Loss of community
* Genetic engineering and the designer baby phenomenon
* Community attitudes towards people who are different
* The eugenics movement as seen in the world wide abortions of Downs Syndrome babies.

He pointed out that we must be working actively in our countries to promulgate rights and to do so we must win the hearts and minds of a wide range of citizens and government. Winning the hearts and minds was an important process because rights in themselves were not a guarantor of care. Some of the challenges we face as institutions providing care will be an increased competition for resources—both staff and finances. With an increase in needs for ageing people with intellectual disabilities and an ageing of parents who have provided care for their disabled child, competition for resources will rapidly increase. It is imperative that agencies around the world develop coalitions and partnerships with other advocacy groups to advance political action.

I made six points when I spoke on the conference wrap up panel

1. NGO’s and families need to partner as neo-liberal strategy is to create fear around resources and to create a climate where agencies compete against each other;
2. We need to strategize locally, nationally and internationally with other agencies providing services in order to win the hearts and minds of both the public and those who set public policy;
3. L’Arche at all levels needs to take a step and reach out to others around us who are involved with persons with intellectual disabilities;
4. Disability is a way of life, not a medical condition, and that all of us at times in our lives have special needs;
5. We need to move from seeing that we are service providers to recognizing that persons with an intellectual disability have gifts that the world needs—gifts of the heart which draw us into vulnerability and relationship;
6. Relationships with persons with an intellectual disability are key so that what we do is not for but with.

The conference confirmed that L’Arche has a “rightful” place amongst agencies and NGO’s around the world. It also confirms that part of our mission that is pushing us into the broader world. We need to move beyond the safety of spiritual and religious associations and discussions and take a step into the wider arena where politics is being played out and policy is being set.