During the 10th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP) the WFD hosted a side-event with theme “Full inclusion in education – possible by 2030?”. The side-event took place at the UN headquarters in New York, USA on 13 June 2017. On the site, the room was full and there were more than 10 000 observers via WFD Facebook live streaming.

The panel was composed of five people from grassroot level activists from a Global South country, deaf academics, a UNESCO representative and a WFD board member. The audience was interested and presented questions to panellists. There would have been more questions but time ran out. However, the WFD hopes that discussion on deaf education and status of sign languages will continue. The WFD would like to see an international day of sign languages being recognised by the UN in the future. Such a step would promote the status of sign language and human rights of deaf people worldwide.

WFD Board Member Mr Florjan Rojba, National Federation of the Deaf in Nepal President Mr Ram Kushal Pant, WFD Human Rights Officer Ms Eeva Tupi, Stockholm University representative Dr Krister Schönström, Gallaudet University representative Dr Marlon Kuntze and UNESCO representative Dr Irmgarda Kasinskaite-Buddeberg