By Min Yea-Ji and Yoon Sojung
Photos = PyeongChang Organizing Committee

The Paralympic Mural was officially unveiled at the PyeongChang Athletes’ Village on March 8. The mural shows support for the disabled by recognizing them not as people who need protection or benefit, but as independent individuals with naturally bestowed human rights.

The ceremony was attended by International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jonghwan and Jong Hyon, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Federation for the Protection of the Disabled from North Korea.

Dubbed as “Breaking down barriers,” the mural shows the commitment of support for the principles of the U.N. Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that the disabled are to be regarded equally as people without disabilities, and which promotes their natural dignity. Since the adoption on Dec. 31, 2006, this U.N. Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was introduced at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Summer Games and has been accepted in following Paralympic Games ever since.

PyeongChang Organizing Committee President Lee Heebeom said that every participant in the PyeongChang Paralympics can become a hero who breaks down barriers and prejudice in their hearts and build a bridge of understanding and communication.

The Paralympic Mural will be also decorated with athletes' signatures, just like the Olympic Truce Mural last month. When the Paralympics end, it will become a legacy monument that marks the principles of the U.N. Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.



jesimin@korea.kr