GLOBAL VISION PROJECT: Global Vision of Rehabilitation
and Recreation for People with Disabilities in the 21st Century

RESOLUTIONS:
"2000 Resolution on Special Play and Recreation for People with Disabilities
Addressed to Rehabilitation International and the United Nations
on the Right to Play and Recreation and an International Convention"
By Special Recreation for disABLED International

WHEREAS, play and recreation for people with disabilities general mandates in United Nations Human Rights declarations from 1948 to the present have not been made specific and have not been realized; and

WHEREAS, many nations and communities have lacked awareness of the important roles and functions of play and recreation in combating contemporary society's commercialization, exploitation of workers, immigration and migration problems, impersonalization, industrialization, marginalization, unemployment, and urbanization resulting in alienation, anti-social behavior, crime, and poverty; and,

WHEREAS, people with disabilities, who are 10 percent of the world's population, are denied their human and civil rights to even play and recreation because of the public's ignorance and prejudice, both pubic and private architects' "user adverse" barrier-ridden architecture, society's suppression of economic and social equity; the education, technology, employment gaps; lack of transportation; and, the lack of special play and recreation activities, programs, and services provided by government and civil society; and,

WHEREAS, individuals with disabilities at each age level, in institutions and in the community, are denied the personal benefits, functional benefits, rehabilitative benefits, and therapeutic benefits of play and recreation; and,

WHEREAS, people with disabilities often experience excessive or massively excessive enforced free time without the play and recreation education and advising/counseling and without special play and recreation activities, programs, and services which provide needed "natural play and recreation" pleasure, growth, health, development, and healing to infants, children, youth, adults, and seniors; and,

WHEREAS, rehabilitation of people with disabilities fundamental goal is the achievement of the individuals highest potential, educationally, medically, recreationally, socially, and vocationally,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT

Special Recreation for disABLED International (SRDI) embraces the "Rehabilitation International (RI) Charter for the Third Millennium," encourages current RI consideration of an International Convention, and endorses efforts, past, current, and future, undertaken by the United Nations (UN) and the UN Specialized Agencies (UNSAs) in behalf of the world's people with disabilities; and,

SRDI urges that Rehabilitation International and the United Nations/UNSAs incorporate the principles, goals, methods, and desired results of play and recreation set forth in the "International Declaration of the Special Play and Recreation Rights and Responsibilities of People with Disabilities," currently adopted by rehabilitation and recreation organizations and commended to governments, civil society, and the United Nations by the Disabilities Thematic Issue [group] of the "United Nations Millennium Forum, 2000"; and,

SRDI volunteers technical assistance (including SRDI's International Center 8,000-page activity collection, 3,000-page professional collection, 1,000-volume library, and Global Vision Project WEBSITE/S) to Rehabilitation International and the United Nations/UNSAs in:

Addressing the play and recreation needs, rights, and aspirations of all people with disabilities, infants, children, youth, adults, and seniors; and,

Addressing the individual aspirations of people with disabilities in the CREATIVE, HEALING, AND AMELIORATING play and recreation activities and therapies, that is,

CREATIVE THERAPIES: art, dance, drama, movement, music, and writing;

HEALING THERAPIES: activity, animals/pets, aquatics, bibliotherapy, camping/outdoor recreation, hippotherapy, horticulture, humor/laughter, phototherapy, play and recreation, puppetry, social recreation, sports, and tourism, and

AMELIORATING CULTURAL: computer recreation (computer, internet, web); commercial/entertainment recreation; cultural recreation activities (concerts, dance productions, exhibitions, museums, recitals); ethnic and folk recreation; games and hobbies play and recreation; media (print, radio, television, videos) recreation; mental and literary recreation; special events recreation; sports recreation; travel and tourism recreation; and, volunteering recreation; and

Addressing people's needs for creative expression, growth and development, healing (emotions, mind, and body), mental and physical health, and social play and recreation yielding perceptions of achievement, joy, satisfaction, and well being; and,

Addressing the Community-Based Special Play and Recreation needs of people with disabilities in conjunction as part of either Community-Based Rehabilitation or Community (commercial, public, private) Recreation or both; and

SRDI urges that Rehabilitation International and the United Nations incorporate into their respective mandates on prevention of disease and injury, the prevention of injuries from play and recreation activities in general and in particularly prevention of injuries from the fireworks which injure, disable, and kills in manufacture, transport, and in consumer use; and,

SRDI volunteers technical assistance to RI and the UN in addressing the problems inherent in the operation of international fireworks trade's victimization, injuries which draw on limited treatment and rehabilitation resources, and cause permanent disabilities (amputations, deafness, blindness, burns, illnesses, impairments, and psychosocial trauma).
___

ADOPTED JULY 12, 2000, Board of Directors
Special Recreation for disABLED International
[Website Secretariat/Clearinghouse]
Prof. John A. Nesbitt, Ed.D., CTRS, Pres/CEO,
362 Koser Avenue, Iowa City, Iowa 52246-3038 USA.
TELEPHONE 319/337-7578 --- FAX Available on Request
EMAIL john-nesbitt@uiowa.edu --- WEBSITE http://www.jccniowa.org/~recdsabl
N.B.: All communications by EMAIL; All information on WEBSITE, only.

GLOBAL VISION PROJECT: Global Vision of Rehabilitation and
Recreation for People with Disabilities in the 21st Century
A Joint Project by
Disability International Foundation AND
Special Recreation for disABLED International

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