OPENING ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

MARTTI AHTISAARI AT THE 10TH WORLD CONGRESS

OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE SCIENTIFIC

STUDY OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES (IASSID)

IN HELSINKI ON 8 July 1996

Ignorance, indifference, superstition and fear have isolated persons with disabilities from others throughout the history of humankind. Many superstitions and beliefs have traditionally been associated with intellectual disabilities. As little as a generation ago, mental retardation could be regarded as the wages of sin also here in our own country. This belief has receded in modern societies, but in developing countries many families are still stigmatised because of intellectual disability on the part of one of their members. Also in developed countries, genuine acceptance of people with intellectual disabilities remains in many respects less than complete. These people still encounter many obstacles when they wish to participate in education and training, working life and the affairs of society.

Nevertheless, perceptions of the person with an intellectual disability are changing. He or she is not sick and only in need of care, but a thinking, feeling and functioning person, with his or her own hopes and needs. He or she is first and foremost a human being, one of whose personal features happens to be a disability. Perhaps we may yet see the day when a child with a disability being born into a family is no longer regarded as an emotional or economic catastrophe, but rather as a challenge which parents can calmly address, confident of the support and understanding of society and their neighbours.

Intellectual disability has fascinated researchers in the fields of medicine, the social sciences and the behavioural sciences. The declaration of Helsinki is a set of guidelines issued by the World Medical Association which calls for ethical standards safeguarding the rights and welfare of the individual to be observed in biomedical research relating to people. This is particularly important when the subject of study is a person with an intellectual disability.

Correct information frees families and individuals from false feelings of guilt and supports the development of new rehabilitation and treatment methods. Prospects for people with disabilities being integrated as members of society will improve as our knowledge about learning, rehabilitation and relations of interaction increase. It is natural for many of us to strive to do everything possible to lessen the risk of disability so that as many children as possible can be born to lead healthy lives. This involves the design of living environments, traffic planning, prenatal and child care counselling and good maternity services. In spite of our best endeavours, disability and deficiency are intrinsic to life. What is most important is that also a child with a disability should have the right to be born as a wanted member of its family and society. Prevention is a complex problem with many medical, social, psychological, religious and legal ramifications. The many aspects of these matters will be brought up at this congress.

Disability does not relate solely to the properties of the individual, but also to the complex interaction between individual and society. It is not only the individual that needs rehabilitation, but also social structures and services and our own attitudes and behaviour.

The intellectual disability sector has been a pioneer in organising families and relatives. Persons with intellectual disabilities are themselves participating in the work of organisations. People forming organisations on their own initiative is an important part of a functioning democracy. By courageously raising questions of disabilities, the organisations working in the field of intellectual disability have significantly advanced equality and full sharing for all.

This is the first time that a world scientific congress dedicated to care of the intellectually disabled is being held in Finland. We are particularly proud of the fact that our country is being allowed to represent, in its role of host, the Nordic welfare model. The premises underlying Nordic policy with regard to persons with disabilities have been solidarity, collective bearing of the risk caused by disability, integration and normalization. I know that these aspirations have had a strong influence globally on the arrangement of services for the intellectually disabled. The economic structures of the welfare state are now threatened both in the Nordic countries and elsewhere in the world. The opportunities available to persons with intellectual disabilities to champion their own causes are limited. It was specifically for such groups that the work of building up the welfare society originally began. They are also the last groups whose welfare can be compromised without scrapping the whole idea of social responsibility.

Implementation of the rights and opportunities of persons with disabilities requires international cooperation in a variety of fora. There is a need for action on the part of persons with disabilities themselves, and for research-oriented cooperation. As one of the newest members of the European Union, Finland is working for the implementation in Europe of a policy on persons with disabilities that is based on respect for humanity. Our work at the United Nations has likewise rested on the same premises for a long time. The operational policy programme Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the UN in 1993. The aim is to make every country on earth a better place to live for all people, with or without disabilities. I am glad to be able to note that Finland, in common with most of the countries represented here, has endorsed the Standard Rules. We need cooperation on both the international and the national level so that the goals set can be realised in practice.

We Finns like to speak of the Spirit of Helsinki. When we do, we are referring to the security development in Europe and to detente between the superpowers, among the scenes of which Helsinki and Finlandia Hall have been. This scientific congress has attracted delegates from more countries than ever before. When it was decided in Brisbane, Australia four years ago that Helsinki would be the venue for the 10th congress, the goal was that scientists representing different fields, persons with disabilities and their relatives as well as workers from East and West, from developed and developing countries would be able to meet here on a basis of equality.

Today that goal has been achieved. The biggest and most diverse group of delegates that has ever convened to discuss the theme of research into intellectual disability is present here. In all, more than a thousand speakers and other participants have come from every continent to deal with the theme of the congress: International Advances in Research and in Practice - Global Problems - Local Approaches. May the Spirit of Helsinki create an open atmosphere in which to meet, discourse, exchange information and experience as well as to produce innovations that will improve the quality of life of persons with intellectual disabilities.

My best wishes for good fortune and success go to the congress now beginning, to The International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities and to the local hosts The Finnish Association on Mental Retardation.