Catalina Devandas Aguilar

Catalina Devandas Aguilar, is a Costa Rican lawyer who served as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities from 2014 until 2020. She currently serves as Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations at Geneva. Previously, she worked for the World Bank and took part in the establishment of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with the United Nations Secretariat. She has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.

Catalina-Devandas in 2020

Quotes

• We cannot continue to deal with a GA hall that is not accessible for wheelchair users. We cannot continue to not be able to enter bathrooms. There is a lot to do and we are not happy about that, but what I am optimistic about is we now have a framework of action,
  • At UN disability rights conference, experts question UN inclusivity Devex (13 June 2019)
• It requires this organization to be held accountable on how they are doing with persons with disabilities, but also it is important that it will provide the support at national levels,
• UNICEF, UNDP, and all the agencies working at country level will have to support programmatically the implementation of the convention and that is a fundamental change and is something that is strongly needed.
  • At UN disability rights conference, experts question UN inclusivity Devex (13 June 2019)
• Just the fact that a woman with a disability from Costa Rica is seen on national television in the DPRK running around on a scooter and being very modern and talking brings a different perspective and even hope to persons with disabilities in a country that has been in such isolation,”
  • ENGAGING NORTH KOREA SUCCESSFULLY ON HUMAN RIGHTS Foreign Policy In Focus (September 29, 2017)