Handicap International's name

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Rationale for the name ‘Handicap International’

Handicap International is an international non-governmental organisation which works to improve the conditions and quality of life of disabled people in the developing world and in post-conflict zones.

We work with local partners to deliver programmes in over 55 countries in the south and have sections in Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and France. Our work includes emergency relief in times of disasters and conflict as well as longer term development support. In 1997, Handicap International was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace prize for our work to ban landmines.

Examples of our current work include:

• Providing respiratory physiotherapists to support people who had inhaled sea water during the Asian Tsunami, and a fully equipped boat was sent to support communities in inaccessible coastal areas.
• Setting up a Centre for Street Children in Sierra Leone to provide psycho-social support to former child soldiers.
• Supporting disabled people’s organisations through small grants, information, training and technical advice in Bosnia and across the Balkans.
• Removing unexploded landmines and cluster bombs following conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and elsewhere, and spreading awareness among local people on how to recognise and avoid the threats they pose.

In the UK, we are a partner in Source, an electronic resource that provides access to community-based and unpublished resources on health and disability issues. We are also active in raising awareness in the UK about the effects of cluster bombs on civilian populations.

Handicap International UK has its roots in a French NGO. Handicap International is actually a French name which happens to read across into English. The word ‘disability’ does not exist in French, and ‘handicaps’ are considered by Handicap International to mean the barriers which lead to a disabled person being excluded from physical, social, economic and political life. Handicap International seeks to prevent and remove these barriers, or handicaps.

Handicap International's programmes and activities are grounded in a rights-based approach. Handicap International takes an individual’s human rights as the starting point to addressing the barriers which face them.  We are a ‘solidarity organisation’ (supporting disabled people without being an organisation of disabled people). We believe in a twin track approach to development and disability (supporting the inclusion of disabled people in mainstream services as well as supporting self-advocacy organisations).

The terminology used to describe impairment, disability and handicap has become a very politically sensitive topic as disabled people have gained a voice, and taken ownership of the terminology from the medical ‘experts’. Many of the words that were once in common use are now deemed derogatory by the people they are used to describe. For this reason, the terms should be changed.

However, the language of this debate about terminology is primarily English and little consideration has yet been given to how the new terms (let alone the concepts) translate into other languages. It is important to note that in many other languages, the terminology has not yet been developed at all. In many countries, there are no words to talk about the challenges disabled people, Handicap International and others are trying to describe, (let alone address).

We don’t want a debate about our name to distract us from our core work. We want our achievements in the field and in international campaigns and awareness raising to be recognised as the success of a global movement. For these reasons, retaining the name ‘Handicap International’ is important to us in the UK.

Samantha Rennie
Director of Handicap International UK

June 2005