Event takes place to abolish malpractice of using “mongoloid” term

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ In frames of the ongoing sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN Headquarters in New York, the Permanent Representative Office of Mongolia organized on Monday an event called “Abolishing malpractice of using the ‘mongoloid’ term defining people with Down syndrome: Meaning of the word ‘Mongol’”. This event has become the very first measure abroad aimed to run discussions on abolishing the malpractice of this term among the UN members, related units, specialized organs, researchers and NGOs. The event, chaired by Mr S.Sukhbold, the Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the UN, has attracted Uuganaa Ramsay, author of a book about the malpractice of the term “mongoloid”; Dr Nata Menabde, executive director of the New York City branch of the World Health Organization (WHO); and Mr Andrw Boys, the Director of “Down Syndrome International” organization. The attendees were impressed by a report by Ramsay whose child aged only for three months due to Down syndrome in Scotland, about how the malpractice usage of word “mongoloid” affects the reputation of people, their psychology, their community and society, in general. “It is totally unfair to call the people with Down syndrome as mongoloid. This is not a scientific term,” said Dr Nata Menabde and expressed a readiness to collaborate in correcting the malpractice usage of the term. “Upgrading the public knowledge and information about Down syndrome, helping the people with the syndrome go into social life and seeing them as normal people instead of sickness are right ways to eliminate the wrong usage of the term,” emphasized Mr Andrew Boys. The event was co-sponsored by Permanent Missions of Australia, Brazil, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, ROK, Luxembourg, Mongolia, New Zealand, Poland, Qatar, Singapore, the United Kingdom, UNDESA, UNICEF, International Disability Alliance, Inclusion International and Down Syndrome International. The world Down syndrome day, first established by Down Syndrome International in 2006, was proclaimed in 2011 by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/149 to be observed annually.