DRAFT BIWAKO MILLENNIUM
FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE, BARRIER-FREE
AND RIGHTS-BASED SOCIETY FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Download (Summary
in Word) (Full
paper in PDF)
|
SUMMARY
The Commission, at its fifty-eighth session,
adopted resolution 58/4 of 22 May 2002 on
promoting an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based
society for people with disabilities in the
Asian and Pacific region in the twenty-first
century, by which it proclaimed the extension
of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled
Persons, 1993-2002, for another decade, 2003-2012.
The present document sets out a draft regional
framework for action that provides regional
policy recommendations for action by Governments
in the region and concerned stakeholders to
achieve an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based
society for persons with disabilities in the
new decade, 2003-2012. The regional framework
for action identifies seven areas for priority
action in the new decade. Each priority area
contains critical issues, targets and the
action required.
The regional framework for action explicitly
incorporates the millennium development goals
and their relevant targets to ensure that
concerns relating to persons with disabilities
become an integral part of efforts to achieve
the goals.
|
I. PREAMBLE
We, the members and associate members of ESCAP
represented at the High-level Intergovernmental
Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific Decade
of Disabled Persons,
1. Recognize that while an estimated 400 million
persons with disabilities have the capacity to contribute
to national development in the Asian and Pacific
region and have increasingly become agents of change
in their communities through their collective action,
the majority of persons with disabilities are still
excluded from education, employment and other economic
and social opportunities and constitute some 20
per cent of the poorest people,
2. Recall that following the International Year
of Disabled Persons in 1981, the United Nations
General Assembly, in its resolution 37/52 of 3 December
1982, adopted the World Programme of Action concerning
Disabled Persons, aimed at achieving full participation
and equality and protection of rights of persons
with disabilities,
3. Also recall the continuing commitment of Governments
in the Asian and Pacific region to the promotion
of full participation and equality of persons with
disabilities in the Asian and Pacific region and
to the improvement of their lives through the proclamation
of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons,
1993-2002, at the end of the United Nations Decade
of Disabled Persons (1983-1992) and through the
adoption of the Proclamation on the Full Participation
and Equality of People with Disabilities in the
Asian and Pacific Region and the Agenda for Action
for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons,
1993-2002, at the launch of the Decade at Beijing
in 1992,
4. Affirm the policy guidelines set out in the
Agenda for Action for achieving the goals of the
Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons within
the 12 policy areas (national coordination, legislation,
information, public awareness, accessibility and
communication, education, training and employment,
prevention of causes of disability, rehabilitation
services, assistive devices, self-help organizations
and regional cooperation) and the 107 specific targets
adopted at a regional review meeting in 1995, further
strengthened in 1999 and endorsed by the Commission
at its fifty-sixth session in 2000,
5. Recognize that in the 1990s, United Nations
initiatives concerning global policies and programmes
in areas such as education, environment, human rights,
population and development, social development,
advancement of women, children, and shelter and
habitat incorporated disability issues as substantive
concerns in their declarations, frameworks and strategic
action programmes. In particular, the World Summit
for Social Development, held at Copenhagen in March
1995, in its Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development
noted that people with disabilities, as one of the
world’s largest minorities, are often forced
into poverty, unemployment and social isolation.
It recommended the promotion of the Standard Rules
on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons
with Disabilities and the development of strategies
for implementation of the Rules,
6. Note that the world community has expressed
its commitment to economic and social development
in the face of rapid globalization in adopting General
Assembly resolution 55/2 of 8 September 2000 entitled
“United Nations Millennium Declaration”,
embodying a large number of specific commitments
aimed at improving the lot of humanity in the twenty-first
century,
7. Appreciate that under such a favourable policy
milieu at the global and regional levels, ESCAP
members and associate members adopted resolution
58/4 of 22 May 2002 on promoting an inclusive, barrier-free
and rights-based society for people with disabilities
in the Asian and Pacific region in the twenty-first
century, by which it proclaimed the extension of
the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons,
1993-2002, for another decade, 2003-2012. The resolution
will give further impetus to the implementation
of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled
Persons and the Agenda for Action for the Asian
and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons in the region
beyond 2002,
8. Agree that overall improvement has been achieved
in all 12 policy areas under the Agenda for Action,
but that progress has been uneven, particularly
in the continuing and alarmingly low rate of access
to education for children and youth with disabilities,
and has been marked by significant subregional disparities,
9. Encourage Governments to actively implement
the paradigm shift from a charity-based approach
to a rights-based approach to the development of
persons with disabilities and to move towards the
human rights perspective, especially the perspective
of the right to development for persons with disabilities,
bearing in mind General Assembly resolution 56/168
of 19 December 2001 on a comprehensive and integral
international convention to promote and protect
the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities,
10. Urge Governments in the region which have not
done so to join the signatories to the Proclamation
on the Full Participation and Equality of People
with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region
and to strive to achieve the 107 targets for the
implementation of the Agenda for Action for the
Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons,
11. Adopt the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action
to promote an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based
society for persons with disabilities in the region.
An “inclusive” society means a society
for all and a “barrier-free” society
means a society free from physical and attitudinal
barriers, as well as social, economic and cultural
barriers. A “rights-based” society means
a society based on the concept of human rights,
including the right to development,
12. Confirm that the Biwako Millennium Framework
for Action is set in the context of relevant disability-specific
United Nations international instruments, mandates
and recommendations, including General Assembly
resolutions 2856 (XXVI) of 20 December 1971 on the
Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons,
3447 (XXX) of 9 December 1975 on the Declaration
on the Rights of Disabled Persons, 37/52 of 3 December
1982 on the World Programme of Action concerning
Disabled Persons, the Rehabilitation and Employment
(Disabled Persons) Convention (No. 159), 1983, adopted
by the International Labour Organization on 20 June
1983, and its recommendation on that Convention,
General Assembly resolution 48/96 of 20 December
1993 on Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities
for Persons with Disabilities and the Salamanca
Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs
Education,
13. Anticipate that the Biwako Millennium Framework
for Action will contribute to attaining the millennium
development goals and targets as issues relating
to persons with disabilities are vital concerns
to be addressed in realizing the relevant millennium
development goals and targets.
II. PRINCIPLES AND POLICY DIRECTIONS OF
THE BIWAKO MILLENNIUM FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION
14. To promote the goals of an inclusive, barrier-free
and rights-based society for persons with disabilities
in the Asian and Pacific region, the Biwako Millennium
Framework for Action, is guided by the following
principles and policy directions:
(1) Enact and/or enforce legislation and policies
related to equal opportunities and treatment of
persons with disabilities and their rights to equity
in education, health, information and communications,
training and employment, social services and other
areas. Such legislation and policies should include
persons with all types of disabilities, women and
men, and people in urban and remote and rural areas.
They should be rights-based and promote inclusive
and multisectoral approaches.
(2) Include disability dimensions in all new and
existing laws, policies plans, programmes and schemes.
(3) Establish or strengthen national coordination
committees on disability which will develop and
coordinate the implementation and monitoring of
the policies concerning disability, with effective
participation from organizations of and for persons
with disabilities.
(4) Support the development of persons with disabilities
and their organizations and include them in the
national policy decision-making process on disability,
with special focus on the development of women with
disabilities and their participation in self-help
organizations of persons with disabilities as well
as in mainstream gender initiatives.
(5) Ensure that disabled persons be an integral
part of efforts to achieve the millennium development
goals, particularly in the areas of poverty alleviation,
primary education, gender and youth employment.
(6) Strengthen national capacity in data collection
and analysis concerning disability statistics to
support policy formulation and programme implementation.
(7) Adopt a policy of early intervention in all
multisectoral areas, including education, health
and rehabilitation, and social services for children
with disabilities from birth to four years.
(8) Strengthen community-based approaches in the
prevention of causes of disability, rehabilitation
and equalization of opportunities for persons with
disabilities.
(9) Adopt the concept of universal and inclusive
design for all citizens, which is cost-effective,
in the development of infrastructure and services
in the areas of, inter alia, rural and urban development,
housing, transport and telecommunication.
III. PRIORITY AREAS FOR ACTION
15. Further efforts need to focus on priority areas
where progress was found inadequate and action was
lagging during the implementation of the Asian and
Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002. By
resolution 58/4, Governments in the region defined
the priority policy areas as:
(a) Self-help organizations of persons with disabilities
and related family and parent associations;
(b) Women with disabilities;
(c) Early detection, early intervention and education;
(d) Training and employment, including self-employment;
(e) Access to built environments and public transport;
(f) Access to information and communications,
including information, communications and assistive
technologies;
(g) Poverty alleviation through capacity-building,
social security and sustainable livelihood programmes.
Graphic presentation of the priority
areas
For each priority area, the following have been
identified: (a) critical issues, (b) millennium
development goals, where applicable, (c) targets
of the Biwako Framework and (d) action required
to achieve those targets.
IV. Targets and action in the priority
areas
A. Self-help organizations of persons with disabilities
and related family and parent associations
1. Critical issues
16. Persons with disabilities are the most qualified
and best equipped to support, inform and advocate
for themselves and other persons with disabilities.
Evidence suggests that the quality of life of persons
with disabilities, and of the broader community,
improves when disabled persons themselves actively
voice their concerns and participate in decision-making.
Self-help organizations are the most qualified,
best informed and most motivated to speak on their
own behalf concerning the proper design and implementation
of policy, legislation and strategies which will
ensure their full participation in social, economic,
cultural and political life and enable them to contribute
to the development of their communities.
17. It is imperative to recognize the right of
persons with disabilities to self-representation
and to strengthen their capacity to participate
in the decision-making process. Persons with disabilities
must articulate their own issues and advocate for
reforms that will bring about their development
and independent living in their communities and
society at large. However, when children and others
are not able to represent themselves, their parents,
family members and other supporters should be encouraged
and enabled to help advocate their rights and needs
until such support is no longer necessary.
18. The development of a democratic, representative
disability movement is one way to help ensure that
government provision is appropriate to the needs
and rights of persons with disabilities. Self-help
organizations of persons with disabilities should
include groups and organizations from rural areas
as well as those of particularly marginalized disabled
persons such as women and girls with disabilities,
persons with intellectual disabilities and persons
with psychiatric disabilities.
2. Targets
Target 1. Governments, international funding agencies
and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should,
by 2004, establish policies with the requisite resource
allocations to support the development and formation
of self-help organizations of persons with disabilities
in all areas, and with a specific focus on slum
and rural dwellers. 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.
Target 2. Governments and civil society organizations
should, by 2005, fully include organizations of
persons with disabilities in their decision-making
processes involving planning and programme implementation
which directly and indirectly affect their lives.
3. Action required to achieve targets
1. Governments should implement measures under
the direction of the national coordination committee
on disability to increase the level of consultations
between self-help organizations of persons with
disabilities and diverse sectoral ministries, as
well as with civil society and the private sector.
These measures should include training of persons
with disabilities, including women with disabilities,
on how to participate effectively in the various
decision-making processes. Governments should establish
guidelines for the conduct of consultations and
the process should be periodically reviewed and
evaluated by representatives of self-help organizations
of persons with diverse disabilities.
2. Governments should establish a policy review
panel within the national coordination committee
on disability consisting of representatives of persons
with diverse disabilities. The panel should review
all policies and their implementation which directly
or indirectly affect persons with disabilities.
3. Governments should take action to increase the
representation of persons with disabilities in all
areas of public life, including government, at all
levels from national to local, as well as the legislature
and judicial bodies. This should be promoted by
means of affirmative action and anti-discrimination
legislation.
4. Self-help organizations should develop programmes
for capacity-building to empower their members,
including youth and women with disabilities, to
take consultative and leadership roles in the community
at large as well as in their own organizations and
enable them to serve as trainers in the development
of leadership and management skills of members of
self-help organizations.
5. National self-help organizations of diverse
disability groups should develop mechanisms to engage
rural persons with disabilities in self-help organizations
for mutual support, advocacy and referral to programmes
and services, and to collaborate actively with rural
and urban development NGOs and Government in rural
development initiatives.
6. International funding agencies and NGOs should
give high priority in their development policies
to providing funding and technical assistance to
promote and strengthen self-help organizations of
persons with disabilities.
B. Women with disabilities
1. Critical issues
19. Women with disabilities are one of the most
marginalized groups in society, as they are multiply
disadvantaged through their status as women, as
persons with disabilities, and are over-represented
among persons living in poverty. Women and girls
with disabilities, to a greater extent than boys
and men with disabilities, face discrimination within
the family, are denied access to health care, education,
vocational training, employment and income generation
opportunities, and are excluded from social and
community activities.
20. Women and girls with disabilities encounter
further discrimination as they are exposed to greater
risk of physical and sexual abuse, denial of their
reproductive rights, and reduced opportunity to
enter marriage and family life. In rural areas girls
and women are more disadvantaged, with higher rates
of illiteracy, and lack of access to information
and services. Stigmatized and rejected from earliest
childhood and denied opportunities for development,
girls with disabilities grow up lacking a sense
of self-worth and self-esteem and are denied access
to the roles of women in their communities.
21. Within some self-help organizations of persons
with disabilities in some countries in the region,
women with disabilities have faced further discrimination.
Women with disabilities are under-represented in
membership of such organizations and scarcely visible
in leadership and executive roles. Their concerns
are not addressed in the advocacy agenda of self-help
organizations and young women with disabilities
have not been targeted for leadership training.
22. The mainstream gender movement, which has had
a significant effect on improving the equality of
lives of non-disabled women, has had minimal effect
on the lives of women with disabilities. Women with
disabilities have not been included in membership
of mainstream gender organizations, their issues
have not been addressed other than to note that
they are of special concern and they have lacked
the advocacy skills to change this situation.
23. Governments have a special responsibility in
rectifying the imbalances, providing the needed
support services and promoting the full participation
of women with disabilities in mainstream development.
2. Targets
Target 3. Governments should, by 2005, ensure anti-discrimination
measures, where appropriate, which safeguard the
rights of women with disabilities.
Target 4. National self-help organizations of persons
with disabilities should, by 2005, adopt policies
to promote the full participation and equal representation
of women with disabilities in their activities,
including in management, organizational training
and advocacy programmes.
Target 5. Women with disabilities should, by 2005,
be included in the membership of national mainstream
women’s associations.
3. Action required to achieve targets
1. Governments should implement measures to uphold
the rights of women with disabilities and to protect
them from discrimination. In particular, measures
should be implemented to ensure equal access to
health services, education, training and employment,
and protection from sexual and other forms of abuse
and violence.
2. Governments, NGOs and self-help organizations
should implement programmes to raise the public’s
awareness of the situation of women with disabilities
and to promote positive attitudes, role models and
opportunities for their development.
3. Governments may facilitate the establishment
of a mechanism at the regional, national and subnational
levels to disseminate relevant gender-related information
among women with disabilities. The information should
include, but not be limited to, international documents
and information on national legislation.
4. Self-help organizations of persons with disabilities
should ensure that women with disabilities are represented
at the local, national and regional levels of the
organizations.
5. Self-help organizations should ensure that women
with disabilities constitute at least half of their
delegations at meetings, workshops and seminars.
6. Women with disabilities should be encouraged
to take part in and be given priority in receiving
training opportunities in managerial and general
subjects provided by self-help organizations.
7. Governments, NGOs, self-help organizations and
donors should provide leadership training for women
with disabilities to raise their awareness of gender
issues and to increase their capacity to participate
in policy and decision-making processes at all levels
of self-help organizations of persons with disabilities
and in advocacy and consultative roles with Government
and in civil society.
8. Women with disabilities should form self-help
groups within self-help organizations and form national
and regional networks as a means of support and
of disseminating and sharing information.
9. Groups and networks of women with disabilities
should promote the development of girls with disabilities,
with particular emphasis on access to education,
health information, training and social development.
10. National and regional groups and networks of
women with disabilities should advocate to mainstream
women’s groups for the inclusion of women
with disabilities, their self-help groups and concerns
into the organizations and networks of mainstream
women’s groups, for information dissemination
and support.
11. Mainstream women’s organizations should
specifically include women with disabilities in
their training programmes through providing accessible
venues, arrangements and support as well as training
materials in accessible formats.
12. All agencies, including Governments, NGOs,
self-help organizations, donors and civil society
must promote and uphold at all times the rights
of women with disabilities to choice and self-determination.
C. Early detection, early intervention and education
1. Critical issues
24. Available evidence suggests that less than
10 per cent of children and youth with disabilities
have access to any form of education. This compares
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 situation exists despite
international mandates declaring that education
is a basic right for all children and calling for
the inclusion of all children in primary education
by 2015. Governments should ensure the provision
of appropriate education which responds to the needs
of children with all types of disabilities in the
next decade. It is recognized that there is wide
variation in the response which Governments in the
Asian and Pacific region have made in providing
education for children with disabilities, and that
children are currently educated in a variety of
formal and informal educational settings, and in
separate and inclusive schools.
25. The exclusion of children and youth with disabilities
from education results in their exclusion from opportunities
for further development, particularly diminishing
their access to vocational training, employment,
income generation and business development. Failure
to access education and training prevents the achievement
of economic and social independence and increases
vulnerability to poverty in what can become a self-perpetuating,
inter-generational cycle.
26. Infants and young children with disabilities
require access to early intervention services, including
early detection and identification (birth to four
years old), with support and training to parents
and families to facilitate the maximum development
of the full potential of their disabled children.
Failure to provide early detection, identification
and intervention to infants and young children with
disabilities and support to their parents and caretakers
results in secondary disabling conditions which
further limit their capacity to benefit from educational
opportunities. Provision of early intervention should
be a combined effort of Education, Health and/or
Social Services.
27. Currently education for children and youth
with disabilities is predominantly provided in special
schools in urban centres and is available to limited
numbers of children in many countries of the Asian
and Pacific region. The Salamanca Statement and
Framework for Action on Special Needs Education
recommended that inclusive education, with access
to education in the regular local neighbourhood
or community school, provides the best opportunity
for the majority of children and youth with disabilities
to receive an education, including those in rural
areas. Exceptions to this rule should be considered
on a case-by-case basis where only education in
a special school or establishment can be shown to
meet the needs of the individual child. It is acknowledged
that in some instances special education may be
considered to be the most appropriate form of education
for some children with disabilities.[1] The education
of all children, including children with disabilities,
in local or community schools assists in breaking
down barriers and negative attitudes and facilitates
social integration and cohesion within communities.
The involvement of parents and the local community
in community schools further strengthens this process.
28. Major barriers to the provision of quality
education for children with disabilities in all
educational contexts include the lack of early identification
and intervention services, negative attitudes, exclusionary
policies and practices, inadequate teacher training,
particularly training of all regular teachers to
teach children with diverse abilities, inflexible
curriculum and assessment procedures, inadequate
specialist support staff to assist teachers of special
and regular classes, lack of appropriate teaching
equipment and devices, and failure to make modifications
to the school environment to make it fully accessible.
These barriers can be overcome through policy, planning,
implementation of strategies and allocation of resources
to include children and youth with disabilities
in all national health and education development
initiatives available to non-disabled children and
youth.
29. Governments, in collaboration with other stakeholders,
need to provide sport, leisure and recreational
activities and facilities for persons with disabilities,
as the fulfillment of their basic rights to the
improvement of life.
2. Millennium development goal
30. In this priority area the millennium development
goal is to ensure that by the year 2015, children
everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling and
that girls and boys will have equal access to all
levels of education.
3. Targets
Target 6. Children and youth with disabilities
will be an integral part of the population targeted
by the millennium development goal of ensuring that
by 2015 all boys and girls will complete a full
course of primary schooling.
Target 7. At least 75 per cent of children and
youth with disabilities of school age will, by 2010,
be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
Target 8. By 2012, all infants and young children
(birth to four years old) will have access to and
receive community-based early intervention services,
which ensure survival, with support and training
for their families.
Target 9. Governments should ensure detection of
childhood disabilities at a very early age.
4. Action required to achieve targets
1. Governments should enact legislation, with enforcement
mechanisms, to mandate education for all children,
including children with disabilities, to meet the
goals of the Dakar Framework for Action and the
millennium development goal of primary education
for all children by 2015. Children with disabilities
need to be explicitly included in all national plans
for education, including national plans on education
for all of the Dakar Framework for Action.
2. Ministries of Education should formulate educational
policy and planning in consultation with families
and organizations of persons with disabilities and
develop programmes of education which enable children
with disabilities to attend their local primary
schools. Policy implementation needs to prepare
the school system for inclusive education, where
appropriate, with the clear understanding that all
children have the right to attend school and that
it is the responsibility of the school to accommodate
differences in learners.
3. A range of educational options should be available
to allow the selection of a school that will best
cater for individual learning needs.
4. Adequate public budgetary allocation specifically
for the education of children with disabilities
should be provided within the education budget.
5. Governments, in collaboration with others, should
collect comprehensive data on children with disabilities,
from birth to 16 years old, which should be used
for planning appropriate early intervention and
educational provision, resources and support services,
from birth through school age.
6. Five year targets should be set for the enrolment
of children with disabilities in early intervention,
pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary (post-school)
education. Progress towards meeting these targets
should be closely monitored with a view to achieving
the goal of 75 per cent of children with disabilities
in school by 2012.
7. Ministries of Health and other concerned ministries
should establish adequate early detection and identification
services in hospitals, primary health care, centre
and community-based health care services, with referral
systems to early intervention services for all disabled
infants and children (birth to four years old).
Governments should routinely screen high-risk pregnancies
and high-risk newborn babies for early detection
of disabilities at birth or soon thereafter.
8. Ministries of Health and Education should establish
early intervention services, in collaboration with
other concerned ministries, self-help organizations,
NGO and community-based agencies, to provide early
intervention, support and training to all disabled
infants and children with disabilities (birth to
four years old) and their families.
9. Governments, including Ministries of Education,
should work in partnership with NGOs at the national
and local level to conduct public awareness campaigns
to inform families of children with disabilities,
schools and local communities, of the right of children
and youth with disabilities to participate in education
at all levels, in urban and rural areas, and with
particular emphasis on the inclusion of girls with
disabilities where there is a gender imbalance in
school attendance.
10. The following measures should be taken, where
appropriate, by Governments in the region to improve
the quality of education in all schools, for all
children, including children with disabilities,
in special and inclusive educational contexts: (a)
conduct education and training for raising the awareness
of public officials, including educational and school
administrators and teachers, to promote positive
attitudes to the education of children with disabilities,
increase sensitivity to the rights of children with
disabilities to be educated in local schools and
on practical strategies for including children and
youth with disabilities in regular schools; (b)
provide comprehensive pre- and in-service teacher
training for all teachers, with methodology and
techniques for teaching children with diverse abilities,
the development of flexible curriculum, teaching
and assessment strategies; (c) encourage suitable
candidates with disabilities to enter the teaching
profession; (d) establish procedures for child screening,
identification and placement, child-centred and
individualized teaching strategies and full systems
of learning and teaching support, including resource
centres and specialist teachers, in rural and urban
areas; (e) ensure the availability of appropriate
and accessible teaching materials, equipment and
devices, unencumbered by copyright restriction;
(f) ensure flexible and adaptable curriculum, appropriate
to the abilities of individual children and relevant
in the local context; (g) ensure assessment and
monitoring procedures are appropriate for the diverse
needs of learners.
11. Governments should implement a progressive
programme towards achieving barrier-free and accessible
schools and accessible school transport by 2012.
12. Governments should encourage programmes of
research at tertiary institutions to develop further
effective methodologies for teaching children and
youth with diverse abilities.
13. Organizations of and for disabled persons should
place advocacy for the education of children with
disabilities as a high priority item on their agenda.
14. Regional cooperation needs to be strengthened
to facilitate the sharing of experiences and good
practices and to support the development of inclusive
education initiatives.
D. Training and employment, including self-employment
1. Critical issues
31. The challenge of integrating and including
persons with disabilities in the economic mainstream
has not been met. Despite international standards
and the implementation of exemplary training and
employment legislation, policies and practices in
some countries, persons with disabilities, and especially
women, youth and those in rural areas, remain disproportionately
undereducated, untrained, unemployed, underemployed
and poor.
32. Persons with disabilities have a right to decent
work. Decent work is productive work in conditions
of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
Persons with disabilities have unique differences
and abilities and they should have the right to
choose what they want to do based on their abilities,
not on their disabilities. They require the same
educational, vocational training, employment and
business development opportunities available to
all. Some may require specialized support services,
assistive devices or job modifications, but these
are small investments compared to lifetimes of productivity
and contribution. Furthermore, a lifetime of exclusion
often results in psychosocial barriers, which must
be addressed if persons with disabilities are to
succeed in training and employment situations.
33. Vocational training and employment issues must
be considered within the context of the full participation
of persons with disabilities in community life and
within the macro context of changing demographics
and workplaces. Responses to issues such as globalization,
job security, poverty reduction and unemployment
among youth and older workers must also consider
how these issues and responses affect persons with
disabilities.
34. Generally, there is a lack of trained and competent
staff working with persons with disabilities, especially
with regard to training and employment. Other capacity
issues that relate to developing, implementing,
evaluating and disseminating effective policies
and programmes on national and regional levels must
continue to be addressed. Persons with disabilities
must also be regularly and actively involved in
initiatives related to employment and training,
not just as consumers but also as advocates, designers
and providers of services.
2. Targets
Target 10. At least 30 per cent of the signatories
(member States) will ratify the International Labour
Organization Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment
(Disabled Persons) Convention (Nn. 159), 1983, by
2012.
Target 11. By 2012, at least 30 per cent of all
vocational training programmes in signatory countries
will be inclusive of persons with disabilities and
provide appropriate support and job placement or
business development services for them.
Target 12. By 2010, reliable data that measure
the employment and self-employment rates of persons
with disabilities will exist in all countries.
3. Action required to achieve targets
1. Governments should examine, ratify and implement
the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled
Persons) Convention, 1983.
2. Governments should have policies, a written
plan, a coordinating body and some mechanism to
evaluate the success of including persons with disabilities
in training, employment, self-employment and poverty
alleviation programmes. These activities should
include consultations with organizations of and
for persons with disabilities as well as employers’
and workers’ organizations.
3. Governments should develop and implement employer
incentives and strategies to move persons with disabilities
into open employment and recognize that government,
as a major employer in most countries, should be
a model employer with regard to the hiring, retention
and advancement of workers with disabilities.
4. Governments should examine and/or enact anti-discrimination
legislation, where appropriate, that protects the
rights of workers with disabilities to equal treatment
and opportunity in the workplace and in the marketplace.
Governments should encourage and promote employment
of persons with disabilities in the private sector
and should provide a mechanism for the protection
of rights of those persons with disabilities affected
by layoffs and downsizing exercises.
5. Governments, international organizations, NGOs,
training institutions and other social partners
should collaborate to increase the availability
and upgrade the competencies of staff providing
training, employment and vocational rehabilitation
services to ensure that trained and competent staff
are available. Persons with disabilities should
be actively recruited and included in such training
programmes and hired as staff.
6. Governments, with the assistance of NGOs, should
ensure that persons with disabilities have the support
services they require to participate in mainstream
vocational training and employment, and allocate
the additional funds required to remove barriers
to inclusion, with the full recognition that the
price tag related to exclusion is higher.
7. Governments, NGOs and disabled persons’
organizations should collaborate more with employers,
trade unions and other social partners to develop
partnerships, policies, mutual understanding and
more effective vocational training and employment
services that benefit persons with disabilities
working in formal, informal or self-employment settings.
8. Governments, in collaboration with employers’
organizations, workers’ organizations, organizations
of and for persons with disabilities and other social
partners should review current policies, practices
and outcomes related to the vocational training
of persons with disabilities to identify gaps and
needs and develop a plan to meet these needs in
the light of workplace changes related to globalization,
ICT and the needs of persons with disabilities living
in remote and rural communities.
9. Funds must be allocated to meet the needs of
those with the most extensive disabilities to provide
training and employment services in dignified and
inclusive settings to the extent possible, by using
strategies such as transitional and production workshops
and community-based and supported employment.
10. Recognizing the lack of formal job opportunities
in many countries, Governments, international agencies,
donors, NGOs and others in civil society must ensure
that persons with disabilities and organizations
of and for persons with disabilities have equitable
access and are included in programmes related to
business development, entrepreneurship and credit
distribution.
11. Regional organizations, including those of
persons with disabilities, in collaboration with
national governments and international agencies,
should develop mechanisms for the collection and
dissemination of information related to good practices
in all aspects of training and employment, especially
those that reflect regional and cultural needs.
E. Access to built environments and public transport
1. Critical issues
35. Inaccessibility to the built environment, including
the public transport system, is still the major
barrier which prevents persons with disabilities
from actively participating in social and economic
activities in the countries of the region. Some
Governments recognize disabled persons’ basic
right to equal access to built environments. Creating
inaccessible built environments, streets and transport
systems discriminates against persons with disabilities
and other members of society. The concept of universal/inclusive
design has emerged as a result of the struggle of
persons with disabilities for accessible physical
environments. Universal/inclusive design approaches
have proven to benefit not only persons with disabilities
but also many other sectors within the society,
such as older persons, pregnant women and parents
with young children.
36. Most of the world’s population of older
persons resides in the Asian and Pacific region.
The numbers are expected to increase dramatically
given current demographic trends. The proportion
of older women is also steadily growing given that
women outlive men in nearly all countries, both
rich and poor. As more people - men and women -
survive to older age, the numbers of older people
with disabilities are rising. Additionally, the
onset of physical disability in old age will only
exacerbate the social stigma older persons face
as they are often viewed as burdens and liabilities.
All persons with disabilities, however, whether
young or old, have issues in common which affect
them equally. These include the barriers in our
environment, such as the lack of access to built
environments and public transport.
37. The universal/inclusive design approaches provide
safer environments for all by reducing the rate
of accidents. Physical barriers are known to prevent
full participation and reduce the economic and social
output of persons with disabilities. Investments
in the removal and prevention of architectural and
design barriers are increasingly being justified
on economic grounds, particularly in areas most
critical to social and economic participation (e.g.,
transport, housing, education, employment, health
care, government, public discourse, cultural and
religious activities, leisure and recreation). It
is important to note that not only facilities but
also services should be accessible in their entirety.
In this connection dealing with persons with disabilities
should be an important part of a staff training
curriculum.
2. Targets
Target 13. Governments should adopt and enforce
accessibility standards for planning of public facilities,
infrastructure and transport, including those in
rural/agricultural contexts.
Target 14. All new and renovated public transport
systems, including road, water, light and heavy
mass railway and air transport systems, should be
made fully accessible by persons with disabilities
and older persons; existing land, water and air
public transport systems (vehicles, stops and terminals)
should be made accessible and usable as soon as
practicable.
Target 15. All international and regional funding
agencies for infrastructure development should include
universal and inclusive design concepts in their
loan/grant award criteria.
3. Action required to achieve targets
1. Governments, in collaboration with disabled
persons’ organizations, civil society groups
such as professional architecture and engineering
associations and others in the corporate sector,
should support the establishment of national and/or
regional mechanisms to exchange information on means
to realize accessible environments, with display,
library and research facilities, and information
centres and should network with research and/or
educational architectural and engineering establishments.
2. Ensure that professional education and academic
courses in architecture, planning and landscape
and building and engineering contain inclusive design
principles; “teaching the teachers”
courses in effective teaching of practical accessible
design are established for all design schools in
the region, including travelling workshops which
involve the active participation of persons with
disabilities; and support continuing education professional
development courses on best practices in inclusive
design techniques for experienced practitioners,
including those professionals who work closely with
the end-users, such as community-based rehabilitation
personnel.
3. Encourage innovative techniques, such as through
design competitions, architectural and other awards
and various other forms of support, to identify
particular applications that enhance accessibility
and apply local knowledge and materials. Local materials
to make built environments accessible, e.g., tactile
blocks and non-slip floor tiles, should be developed
and made available. Networks to disseminate innovative
techniques should be developed.
4. Support the establishment of appraisal mechanisms
on how codes and standards have been developed,
applied and enforced and how they have increased
accessibility in various countries. Feedback and
case studies on areas (rather than on a single new
or upgraded building) are important, with publicity
and dissemination of the findings, and show how
improvements could be made.
5. Ensure that the accessibility needs of persons
with disabilities be included in all rural/agricultural
development programmes, including but not limited
to access and use of sanitation facilities and water
supply through a process of consultation that includes
disabled user-groups.
6. Create access officers or posts which include
the function of access officers at local, provincial
and national levels whose functions include providing
architects/designers/developers with technical advice
and information on access codes and application
of inclusive design, and appropriate technology
in the natural and built environments in rural,
peri-urban and urban contexts.
7. Disabled persons’ organizations should
implement confidence-building and advocacy measures
to present their needs collectively and effectively
in the built environment in one voice representing
the needs of different disability groups, including
not only persons with physical, visual and hearing
disabilities but also persons with intellectual
disabilities.
F. Access to information and communications, including
information, communication and assistive technologies
1. Critical issues
38. ICT has been the engine of economic growth
and continues to spur the globalization process.
However, the benefits of ICT development have spread
unevenly between the haves and the have-nots and
between developed and developing countries.
39. The effects of ICT upon persons with disabilities
have been both positive and negative. Many disabled
persons benefit from ICT development, as the technologies
are opening up opportunities for employment at all
skill levels and opportunities to live independently
in the community. Deaf-blind persons, with proper
training, are using a refreshable Braille screen
reader and persons with severe cerebral palsy are
taking part in information exchange through the
Internet. However, benefits are still largely limited
to persons with disabilities in more developed countries.
The rapid development of ICT has given rise to unanticipated
problems for persons with certain disabilities.
For example, online processes for registration,
banking or shopping transactions may not be accessible
to persons with cognitive/intellectual, physical
or visual and/or auditory disabilities.
40. The majority of disabled persons in the developing
countries in the Asian and Pacific region are poor
and have been excluded from ICT use, although there
is a great potential benefit for the use of ICT
in rural areas in developing countries.
41. The Tokyo Declaration on Asia-Pacific Renaissance
through ICT in the Twenty-first Century, adopted
by the Asia-Pacific Summit on the Information Society,
organized by the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity and
held at Tokyo in November 2000, declared that people
in the Asian and Pacific region should have access
to the Internet by the year 2005 to the extent possible.
It also recognized disability as one of the causes
of the digital divide, along with income, age and
gender. The World Summit on the Information Society
will be held at Geneva in 2003 and at Tunis in 2005.
At the Summit, issues concerning persons with disabilities
and other disadvantaged groups should be considered.
42. In the information society, access to information
and communications is a basic human right. Copyright
owners should bear responsibility for ensuring that
content is accessible to all, including persons
with disabilities. Any anti-piracy or digital rights
management technology should not prevent persons
with disabilities from access to information and
communications.[2] Information and communication
technology should break down the barriers in telecommunication
and broadcasting systems. Developing countries need
greater support in the area of ICT.
43. In many countries in Asia and the Pacific,
Sign Language, Braille, finger Braille (tactile
sign language) have not yet been standardized. These
and other forms of communication need to be developed
and disseminated. Without access to such forms of
communication, persons with visual and/or hearing
impairments cannot benefit from ICT developments.
More importantly, they maybe deprived of the basic
human right to language and communication in their
everyday lives.
2. Targets
Target 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.
Target 17. International organizations (e.g., International
Telecommunication Union, International Organization
for Standardization, World Trade Organization, World
Wide Web Consortium, Motion Picture Engineering
Group) responsible for international ICT standards
should, by 2004, incorporate accessibility standards
for persons with disabilities in their international
ICT standards.
Target 18. Governments should adopt, by 2005, ICT
accessibility guidelines for persons with disabilities
in their national ICT policies and specifically
include persons with disabilities as their target
beneficiary group with appropriate measures.
Target 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.
Target 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.
3. Action required to achieve targets
1. Governments should promulgate and enforce laws,
policies and programmes to monitor and protect the
right of persons with disabilities to information
and communication; for instance, legislation providing
copyright exemptions to organizations which make
information content accessible to persons with disabilities,
under certain conditions.
Governments, in collaboration with other concerned
agencies and civil society organizations, should:
2. Set up an ICT accessibility unit within the
ICT ministry/regulatory agency, and encourage private
companies to establish an equivalent unit to coordinate
activities within and outside agencies/companies.
3. Conduct and encourage awareness-raising training
for ICT policy makers, regulatory agencies, representatives
as well as technical personnel of private ICT companies
to raise understanding of disability issues, including
disabled persons’ ICT accessibility needs,
their capability and aspiration to be productive
members of society.
4. Support computer literacy training and capacity-building
for persons with disabilities, through training
on how to communicate with software and hardware
developers and standards organizations to address
their needs.
5. Provide various forms of incentives, including
exemption of duties for ICT devices used by persons
with disabilities and subsidize the cost of assistive
technology equipment to ensure that they are affordable
for persons with disabilities in need.
6. Support the creation and strengthening of networks,
including cooperatives, of consumers with disabilities
at the national, regional and international levels
in order to increase the bargaining and buying power
for ICT products and services, which are generally
expensive to buy individually.
7. Take all necessary steps to ensure, in the development
of measures and standards relating to ICT accessibility,
that organizations of persons with disabilities
are involved in all stages of the process.
8. Adopt and support ICT development based on international
standards which are universal/open/non-proprietary
to ensure the long-term commitment to ICT accessibility
for persons with disabilities among all sectors,
with special attention to standards that have accessibility
components and features with a proven record of
effectiveness. Examples of these are the Web Accessibility
Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium and
the Digital Accessible Information System Consortium.
9. Require that local language applications and
content use national/international standard character
encoding and modelling, such as the Unified Modeling
Language, and encourage dialogue on accessibility
requirements of character encoding and modelling.
10. Support participation of civil society organizations
representing and reflecting the requirements of
persons with disabilities in discussions on regional
and international standards towards a goal of increased
harmonization of international standards supporting
the requirements of persons with disabilities. Where
such international standards are lacking, Governments
should support alternative initiatives to address
those needs, with attention to compatibility and
interoperability with international standards.
11. Bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and
international funding agencies should adopt award
criteria based on the social responsibility of the
receiving agencies/organizations, including their
obligation to promote ICT accessibility for persons
with disabilities.
12. Support and establish a regional working group
to develop standards in ICT, telecommunication and
broadcasting to ensure that new and existing technologies
are based on disability inclusive standards and
are developed on a universal design concept. In
addition to ICT, measures to ensure communication
of persons with disabilities, including development
of standardized Sign Language and Braille, need
to be established.
G. Poverty alleviation through capacity-building,
social security
and sustainable livelihood programmes
1. Critical issues
44. In the Asian and Pacific region, it is estimated
that of 400 million persons with disabilities, over
40 per cent are living in poverty. Those persons
with disabilities have been prevented from accessing
entitlements available to other members of society,
including health, food, education, employment and
other basic social services, and from participating
in community decision-making processes.
45. Poverty is both a cause and consequence of
disability. Poverty and disability reinforce one
another, contributing to increased vulnerability
and exclusion. Poor nutrition, dangerous working
and living conditions, limited access to vaccination
programmes and health and maternity care, poor hygiene,
bad sanitation, inadequate information about the
causes of impairments, war and conflict and natural
disasters are factors responsible for disability.
Many of these causes are preventable. Disability
in turn exacerbates poverty, by diminishing access
to means of livelihood, increasing isolation from
the marketplace and economic strain. This affects
not just the individual but often the entire family.
46. The increasing numbers and proportions of older
people living to advanced old age has meant that
the number of persons with disabilities will increase
and this may be a contributing factor to human poverty.
The issues of concern for older persons have to
do with disabilities related to ageing and the provision
of appropriate health care and social security.
In ageing societies, especially, these issues will
have a profound impact on national health and long-term
care systems and on whether social security schemes
are sufficient as currently constituted.
47. The main factors that account for the low level
of social services for poor persons with disabilities
are household-based and community-based. However,
there is little knowledge about the determining
factors for the low welfare level of persons with
disabilities in the developing countries of the
region. Social and economic survey data at the household
and community levels, which are necessary for an
analysis of the factors, are lacking. It is important
to examine to what extent the development of community-level
infrastructure affects the provision of services
for poor persons with disabilities.
48. An integrated approach is required, linking
prevention and rehabilitation with empowerment strategies
and changes in attitudes. The significance of disability
should be assessed as a key development issue and
its importance should be recognized in relation
to poverty, human rights and the achievement of
internationally agreed development targets. Eliminating
world poverty is unlikely to be achieved unless
the rights and needs of persons with disabilities
are taken into account.
49. One of the millennium development goals has
a specific target of poverty eradication. This is
a positive approach. However, there is a danger
that this strategy may omit the important vulnerable
group of persons with disabilities as efforts to
achieve the targets could focus on those who can
be brought out of poverty most easily and not those
in extreme poverty, among whom persons with disabilities
are disproportionately represented. The root causes
of poverty of persons with disabilities are far
more complicated and multifaceted. Hence, conscious
efforts should be made to include persons with disabilities
in the target groups given priority in the poverty
reduction strategy to achieve the millennium development
goals.
2. Millennium development goals
50. The relevant millennium development goal in
this priority area is to halve, by the year 2015,
the proportion of the world’s people whose
income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion
of people who suffer from hunger, and by the same
date, to halve the proportion of people who are
unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water.
3. Targets
Target 21. Governments should halve, between 1990
and 2015, the proportion of persons with disabilities
whose income/consumption is less than one dollar
a day.
4. Action required to achieve targets
1. Governments should immediately include, as a
major target group, persons with disabilities in
their national poverty alleviation programmes in
order to achieve the millennium development goal
target to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Governments should allocate adequate rural development
and poverty alleviation funds towards services for
the benefit of persons with disabilities.
3. Government should include disability dimensions
and poverty mapping and disability into the collection
and analysis of millennium development goal baseline
data on income poverty, education, health, etc.,
so as to ensure baseline data for poor persons with
disabilities.
4. Government should mainstream disability issues
into pro-poor development strategies through:
(a) Increased resource allocation for poor persons
with disabilities and the introduction of social
budgeting for disability;
(b) Participatory evaluation of existing social
and economic policies through more effective methodologies,
including the use of citizen’s report card
method;
(c) Establishment of appropriate social protection
schemes, such as schooling subsidy and/or health
insurance for poor families with disabled children
and older persons with physical and mental disabilities;
(d) Comprehensive development policies targeting
persons with disabilities and families with disabled
persons.
5. Governments should document and disseminate
good field-based practices in poverty alleviation
for persons with disabilities that can be used as
models for capacity-building in government sectoral
ministries, civil society organizations and the
private sector.
6. Governments should encourage the building of
strategic alliances among and advocating the importance
of disability issues to policy makers. organizations
of persons with disabilities and community development
organizations, with assistance from the United Nations
system, with a view to incorporating disability
issues into development policies
7. Preventive measures aimed at minimizing the
causes of disability and the provision of rehabilitation
services should be an integral part of the normal
business of Governments, the private sector and
NGOs. Programmes aimed at disability prevention
and rehabilitation should be included in national
plans, policies and budgets.
8. Governments should design and adopt a national
strategy on prevention of causes of disabilities
and rehabilitation for persons with disabilities.
9. The national strategy should acknowledge the
role of all three approaches, institutional, outreach
and community-based, in the rehabilitation of persons
with disabilities. Community-based approaches, in
particular, should be emphasized to achieve maximum
coverage and outreach of services as well as to
maximize their cost-effectiveness.
10. The health service delivery structures, both
governmental and non-governmental, should include
rehabilitation services such as physiotherapy and
occupational therapy as well as the provision of
essential assistive device services. Little is known
about gender-specific measures and health care approaches
for mental health and physical disabilities among
older women and men. Service provision for mental
illness in older people needs attention. Special
emphasis should be placed on ensuring that such
services are available at the local level, including
rural and urban poor areas.
11. Governments should support the formation of
self-help groups of persons with disabilities in
rural and urban poor areas and their federations,
with a view to developing their capacity in mutual
support, advocacy and participation in the decision-making
process.
V. STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE TARGETS OF THE BIWAKO
MILLENNIUM FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION
51. The following strategies should support Governments,
in collaboration with civil society organizations,
in the achievement of targets cited in chapter IV.
A. National plan of action (five years) on disability
52. A national plan of action concerning disability
is vital to implement the Biwako Millennium Framework
for Action, 2003-2012, at the national and subnational
levels.
Strategy 1. Governments should develop, in collaboration
with organizations of persons with disabilities
and other civil society organizations, and adopt
by 2004, a five-year comprehensive national plan
of action to implement the targets and strategies
of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action, 2003-2012.
The national plan should have inclusive policies
and programmes for integrating persons with disabilities
into mainstream development plans and programmes.
B. Promotion of a rights-based approach to disability
issues
53. A rights-based approach should be taken to
advance disability issues. The civil, cultural,
economic, political and social rights of persons
with disabilities should be addressed and protected.
Disability issues should be integrated into national
plans relating to development and into a human rights
agenda. Globally, more than 40 countries have adopted
non-discrimination laws on disability, but only
9 countries in the Asian and Pacific region have
done so.
Strategy 2. Governments should examine the adoption
of laws and policies and review of existing laws
to protect the rights of persons with disabilities,
especially to ensure non-discrimination. They should
include a clear and specific definition of what
constitutes discrimination against persons with
disabilities. Such laws and policies should comply
with United Nations standards on human rights and
disabilities. Persons with disabilities should have
equal access to effective remedies to enforce their
rights under such laws.
Strategy 3. National human rights institutions
should draw special attention to the rights of persons
with disabilities and integrate them into the full
range of their functions. Governments should consider,
according to the concrete circumstances of their
countries and areas, establishing an independent
disability rights institution to protect the rights
of persons with disabilities.
Strategy 4. Governments should ensure that persons
with disabilities, including disability groups in
civil society, fully participate from an early stage
in helping to shape the laws and policies that will
affect their lives and in monitoring and evaluating
the implementation of these laws and policies and
in recommending improvements.
Strategy 5. States should consider ratifying the
core international human rights treaties.3 After
consultation with disability groups, Governments
should include specific information about the rights
of persons with disabilities in reports submitted
to treaty monitoring bodies under the treaties they
have ratified.
Strategy 6. Governments should consider support
for and contribute to the work of the Ad Hoc Committee
established by General Assembly resolution 56/168
of 19 December 2001 to consider proposals for a
“comprehensive and integral international
convention to promote and protect the rights of
persons with disabilities” in the elaboration
of the comprehensive and integral international
convention to promote and protect the rights and
dignity of persons with disabilities and should
encourage and facilitate the full participation
of a wide range of disability groups from all regions
of the world in contributing to the Committee’s
work.
Strategy 7. Governments should 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,
(as decided by General Assembly resolution 56/168
of 19 December 2001) which by passing, will ensure
a strong consumer-influenced monitoring mechanism
on the rights and responsibilities of persons with
disabilities.
C. Disability statistics/common definition of disabilities
for planning
54. Lack of adequate
