One out of every 10 people in the world has a disability - that's some 650 million worldwide. Approximately 470 million are of working age. While many are successfully employed and fully integrated into society, as a group, persons with disabilities often face disproportionate poverty and unemployment.

Decent work is the ILO's primary goal for everyone, including persons with disabilities. The ILO and, in particular, its Disability Programme has worked for over 50 years to promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities based on the principles of equal opportunity, equal treatment, mainstreaming and community involvement. The principle of non-discrimination is increasingly emphasized as disability issues have come to be seen as human rights issues. The ILO works to achieve this goal through promoting labour standards, advocacy, knowledge building and technical cooperation services and partnerships, both within the ILO and externally.

Key ILO instruments relating to the right to decent work of persons with disabilities and prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability include: ILO Convention No. 159 on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons), 1983, and its accompanying Recommendation No. 168.

What's new

New Publication
The full text of ILO Convention No. 159 on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons), ILO Recommendation No. 168 concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons), and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is contained in this new booklet. (Spanish and French versions forthcoming.) (Booklet - (pdf 456 KB))

Voices of Women Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia
This booklet highlights some of the personal experiences of women entrepreneurs, including women with disabilities and HIV/AIDS, in four East African countries who have benefited from the ILO-Irish Aid Partnership Programme on women’s entrepreneurship development. (Voices of Women Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia - (pdf 4,291 KB))

15 – 17 May 2008, Dar es Saalam, Tanzania
Sub-regional Workshop: “Decent Work for Persons with HIV/AIDS and Disabilities”
The main objective of this three-day African Sub-regional workshop was to enhance the participants’ capacity to deal with complaints relating to HIV/AIDS and disabilities in the workplace. The workshop was aimed at judges and representatives of workers’ and employers’ groups involved in legal issues in their respective organizations. (Report from the workshop - (pdf 973 KB))

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