The Montreal Conference > Special Events > Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of the Montreal PAHO/WHO Conference on Intellectual Disability was to witness a very special evening. It featured an address from the Quebec Minister of Health & Social Services, M. Philippe Couillard, who announced the support of his Ministry for the Montreal Declaration as well as its assistance in the diffusion of this document throughout the hemisphere. This support for the Montreal Declaration was subsequently restated by Dr Benedetto Saraceno, head of the department for Mental Health and substance abuse of the World Health Organization, who addressed the conference participants on the importance for WHO of fundamental rights for persons with an intellectual disability.

Both Minister Couillard and Dr Saraceno agreed that the Montreal PAHO/WHO Conference on Intellectual Disability is the culmination of a major evolution of the conception of the person with a disability in the organization of state services. Thus the Montreal Declaration on Intellectual Disabilities builds upon this paradigm shift in the conception of disability from a biomedical model to a social/human rights model. The aim of this paradigm shift is to recognize that these persons possess inherent human rights, rather than are entitled to benefit from certain acquired rights. Persons with an intellectual disability can at long last claim to be part of this paradigm shift and considered as full citizens.