Lake “Biwa” is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, in the City of Otsu. It is in this city that the High-level Intergovernmental Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons is held. Hence, the name of the framework “Biwako” (“ko” means a lake). A few more notes of the other words in the framework. The word “Millennium” indicates that the Framework is being adopted at the beginning of the new millennium and that it is also structured to supplement the UN Millennium Development Goals and targets. “An Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society” represents the guiding principles of this framework. An “inclusive” society is a society for all, and a “barrier-free” society refers to a society free from institutional, physical and attitudinal barriers, as well as social, economic and cultural barriers. A “rights-based” society means a society based on the human rights of all individuals where peoples with disabilities are valued and placed at the centre of all decisions affecting them.

In May 2002, ESCAP adopted the resolution “Promoting an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society for people with disabilities in the Asian and Pacific region in the twenty-first century”. The resolution also proclaimed the extension of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, for another decade, 2003-2012.

The “Draft Biwako Millennium Framework “outlines issues, action plans and strategies towards an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society for persons with disabilities.

To achieve the goal, the framework identifies seven priority areas for action, in each of which critical issues and targets with specific time frames and actions follow. In all, 21 targets and 17 strategies supporting the achievement of all the targets are identified.

The next decade will ensure the paradigm shift from a charity-based approach to a rights-based approach to protect the civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights of persons with disabilities.

To pursue the targets and strategies, consultations with and involvement of civil society, inter alia, self-help organizations and concerned NGOs are essential.

The following sections summarize the seven priority areas for action, the targets, strategies, time-frames, and the supporting/monitoring mechanisms.

(1) Self-help organizations of persons with disabilities and related family and parent associations

Persons with disabilities and their self-help organizations are the most equipped, best informed to speak on their behalf and can contribute to solutions on issues that concern them. Two targets are set to make the difference:

1) By 2004, Governments, international funding agencies and NGOs should establish policy to support and develop self-help organizations. Governments should take steps to ensure the formation of parents associations at local levels by the year 2005 and federate them at the national level by year 2010.

2) By 2005, Governments and civil society organizations should fully include self-help organizations in decision-making processes. Actions for the targets include the participation of persons with disabilities in policy-making, political representations and capacity building.

Self-help organizations should include marginalized persons with disabilities such as women and girls with disabilities, persons with intellectual disabilities, persons who are HIV-positive and affected by leprosy.

(2) Women with disabilities

Women with disabilities are multiply disadvantaged through their status as women, as persons with disabilities, and majority numbers as persons living in poverty. Three targets are set to solve these problems:

3) By 2005, Governments should ensure anti-discrimination measures, where apropriate, to protect women with disabilities.
4) By 2005, self-help organizations adopt policies to promote full representation of women with disabilities,.
5) By 2005, women with disabilities should be included in the membership of national mainstream women’s associations.

(3) Early detection, early intervention and education

Less than 10 per cent of children and youth with disabilities have access to any form of education compared with an enrolment rate of over 70 per cent for non-disabled children and youth in primary education in the Asian and Pacific region. This exclusion from education for children and youth with disabilities results in exclusion from opportunity for further personal, social and vocational development. Three targets are set for these problems:

6) Children with disabilities will be an integral part of the population targeted by Millennium Development Goal Target 3, which is to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
7) By 2010, at least 75 per cent of children and youth with disabilities of school age will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
8) By 2012, all infants and young children (0 – 4 years) will have access to and receive community-based early intervention services.
9) Governments should ensure detection of childhood disabilities at a very early age.

Actions in this area include adequate legislation for inclusive education and national data collection on children with disabilities (0-16 years).

(4) Training and employment, including self-employment

Persons with disabilities remain disproportionately undereducated, untrained, unemployed, underemployed and poor. They have insufficient access to the mainstream labour market partially due to social exclusion, lack of trained and competent staff and adequate training for independent workers. Three targets follow:

10) By 2012, at least 30 per cent of the signatories (member states) will ratify ILO Convention 159 concerning Vocational Rehabilitation on Employment (Disabled Persons).
11) By 2012, at least 30 per cent of all vocational training programmes in signatory countries will include persons with disabilities.
12) By 2010, reliable data on the employment and self-employment rates of persons with disabilities will exist in all countries.

(5) Access to built environment and public transport

Inaccessibility to the built environment, including public transport systems, is still the major barrier for persons with disabilities. This problem will only exacerbate, as the number of older people with disabilities increase in the region. Universal design approaches benefit all people in society including older persons, pregnant women and parents with young children Its economic benefits have been legitimized, yet substantive initiatives at policy level have not been taken. Three targets are set to improve the situation:

13) Governments should adopt and enforce accessibility standards for planning of public facilities, infrastructure and transport, including those in rural/agricultural contexts.
14) Existing public transport systems and all new and renovated public transport systems should be made accessible as soon as practicable.
15) All international and regional funding agencies for infrastructure development should include universal and inclusive design concepts in their loan/grant award criteria.

(6) Access to information and communications including information, communication and assistive technologies

In the last 10 years, there has been much progress in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development, and it opens up many opportunities for people with disabilities in networking, solidarity employment and independent living. But it has also widened the gap between persons with disabilities and the non-disabled. The Digital divide includes inaccessibility to infrastructure for ICT, Internet, and ICT skills. These problems are acute in rural areas. The multi-media environment is creating barriers for people with visual disabilities. Three targets are set to improve the situation:
16) By 2005, persons with disabilities should have at least the same rate of access to the Internet and related services as the rest of citizens in a country of the region.
17) By 2004, international organizations should incorporate accessibility standards for persons with disabilities in their international ICT standards.
18) Governments should adopt, by 2005, ICT accessibility guidelines for persons with disabilities in their national ICT policies.
19) Governments should develop and coordinate a standardized sign language, finger Braille (tactile sign language), in each country and to disseminate and teach the results through all means, i.e. publications, CD-ROMs, etc.
20) Governments should establish a system in each country to train and dispatch sign language interpreters, Braille transcribers, finger Braille interpreters, and human readers and to encourage their employment

(7) Poverty alleviation through social security and livelihood programmes

Persons with disabilities are the poorest of the poor. It is estimated that 160 million persons with disabilities, over 40 per cent of disabled persons are living in poverty, unable to benefit from their socio-economic rights. Poverty and disability worsens each other when persons with disabilities are socially excluded and adequate social services are not provided. Pursuant to the UN Millennium Development Goal target 1:

21) Governments should halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of persons with disabilities whose income/consumption is less than one dollar a day. Actions call for Governments to integrate disability dimensions into MDG baseline data collection and analysis, to allocate a certain percentage of the total rural development /poverty alleviation funds towards persons with disabilities.

National plan of action (five-year) on disability

Strategy 1 calls for Governments to develop and adopt, by 2004, a five-year comprehensive national plan of action to implement the targets and strategies of the framework.

Promotion of rights-based approach to disability issues

Strategy 2 calls for Governments to examine the adoption and implementation non-discrimination policies. Strategy 3 draws attention to National Human Rights Institutions as agencies to protect disabled people’s rights. Strategy 4 calls for Governments to actively involve persons with disabilities in any policy development. Strategy 5 calls for Governments to consider ratifying the core international human rights treaties. Strategy 6 calls for Governments to consider support for the Ad Hoc Committee for the comprehensive and integral international convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Strategy 7 calls on Governments to include persons with disabilities and their organizations, in their procedures at the national, regional and international levels, concerning the drafting and adoption of the proposed human rights convention on disability

Disability statistics/common definition of disabilities for planning

A common system of definition and classification of disability is not uniformly applied in the region. Two strategies are set to solve the problem. Strategy 8 calls for Governments to develop, by 2005, their system in disability-related data collection and analysis. Strategy 9 calls for Governments to adopt, by 2005, definitions on disability based on the United Nations publication “Guidelines and Principles for the Development of Disability Statistics.

Strengthened community development approach to prevention, rehabilitation and empowerment of persons with disabilities

Community-based approach is augmenting and replacing traditional institutional and centralized rehabilitation programmes for disabled people’s economic, social and other human rights enhancement. Strategy 10 calls for Governments to immediately develop national policies to promote community-based approaches.

Cooperation and support for action: subregional, regional and interregional

Special focus is on strengthening cooperation among governments at the subregional level. Strategy 11 and 12 call for developing subregional mechanisms, by 2004, to achieve the targets. At a regional level, strategy 13 calls for Governments, the United Nations system, civil society organizations and the private sector to collaborate, support and take advantage of the training and communication capability of the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability. This center is to be opened in 2004 in Bangkok, as a legacy of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons. It has the capacity of one of the most powerful focal points in the region. Strategy 14 and 15 call for Governments, civil society organizations and the private sector to establish a network of centres of excellence in focused areas to maximize cooperation and collaboration. ESCAP and other United Nations agencies should assist in the establishment of a network of centres of excellence. Strategy 16 calls for a suitable agreement on trade, technology transfer and human resource development for fast and efficient sharing of resources. Strategy 17 proposes that the Asian and Pacific region, the African region and the Western Asian region should strengthen their cooperation and collaboration to create synergy in implementing regional decades through interregional exchange of information, experiences and expertise, which will mutually benefit all the regions.

Monitoring and review

ESCAP should convene biennial meetings to review achievements and to identify actions that may be required to implement the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action. At these meetings, the representatives of national coordination committees on disability matters comprising Government ministries/agencies, NGOs, self-help organizations and the media will be invited to present reports to review progress in the implementation of the framework.

The mid-point review of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action should be conducted. Based on the review, the targets and strategic plans for the second half of the Decade may be modified and new targets and strategic plans formulated.

High-level Intergovernmental Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific