Fw: [AsiaPacificDisability] Asia Pacific Disability Forum Second General Assembly - Final day & Bangkok Statement

Asia Pacific Disability Forum (APDF) in collaboration with UN ESCAP

The 2nd General Assembly and Conference 2006 which took place on 16-17 
October in Bangkok. 


Theme
"Achieving Rights-based Development through Joint Effort"

Bangkok Statement

We, the participants of the 2nd Asia Pacific Disability Forum (APDF),
General Assembly and Conference 2006, with generous support of UNESCAP, 
the
Council of Disabled People of Thailand and the Royal Thai Government met 
at
the United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand on October 16-17,
2006.

We affirm that:

1.  Disability and development are inseparable, indivisible and must be
rights-based. To achieve this goal, joint efforts by all stakeholders must
be taken.

2.  All governments in the region must sign the United Nations Convention 
on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and take active steps to ratify 
and
implement the Convention once it has been adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly. Meanwhile, the entire text of the Convention should 
leave
no room for interpretation in any language, as stated in the footnote of 
the
existing draft. Make no mistake, this footnote should be deleted.

3.  Continued efforts to achieve the targets and goals of the BMF and BMF 
+
5 must be made, including attention to the key areas identified for action
in BMF + 5. Particular attention needs to be paid to the needs of persons
with frequently unidentified and ignored disabilities. The mid-term
evaluation should reflect detailed progress towards the achievement of the
21 targets and should be rigorously conducted by UNESCAP and its partners.
    The evaluation should be conducted by means of participatory 
processes,
ensuring coordinated input from government and NGOs with particular 
emphasis
on persons with disabilities and their representative organizations.

4.  Persons with disabilities and their representative organizations 
should
be significant partners in the formulation, development, implementation 
and
evaluation of national policy and legislation.

5. More effort must be made to collect better and more appropriate data to
reflect the real situation of persons with disabilities to ensure
rights-based resource allocation. Globally, and within the region 
continued
efforts must be made to work towards a commonly accepted definition of
disability, to enable meaningful comparison of disability data.

6. Governments  and other relevant development agencies should pursue
policies of disability inclusiveness in all aspects of development.

7. All governments of the region must take full responsibility for 
ensuring
that the right to education of all children with disabilities is upheld 
and
that all children with disabilities are enrolled in school.  Active steps
must be taken to make inclusive education systems a reality. Governments
should collaborate closely with NGOs and SHOs including organizations of
parents of children with disabilities, and other grassroots organizations,
in the development of inclusive education systems.  There must be
recognition and respect for the evolving capacities  of children and youth
with disabilities.

8.  We salute the success stories of utilizing community-based approaches,
including CBR and Independent Living, currently supported by many NGOs in
the region, as alternatives to institution-based or traditional
rehabilitation services.  More efforts should be made by governments to
implement consumer-driven and community-based solutions in order to ensure
sustainability of services.

9.  We note that slow progress has been made to empower women with
disabilities and recognize the need for more sustained effort both within
the disability community and the mainstream women's movement. There is a
need for further support for women with disabilities' organizations, with
emphasis on the development of leadership and self advocacy skills.

10. The disability movement must enhance its capacity to influence and
utilize the power of the media to increase the awareness, understanding 
and
concern for disability issues in mainstream society. Media should be
utilized at local, national, regional and international levels. Disability
issues should receive political attention.

11. Organizations of and for persons with disabilities, including
organizations of parents of children with disabilities must work in close
collaboration to bring about a united force to achieve the goals and 
targets
of the BMF as well asBMF+5 and the  ratification and full implementation 
of
the United Nations Convention in the region.

12. In forming partnerships and alliances to address disability issues,
including training, employment and income generation, there is a need to
expand the range of partners and stakeholders.  These should include, but
not be limited to, mainstream and international and regional NGOs,
mainstream international and regional development agencies, human rights
institutions, multi-national corporations, and others.


Adopted at 16.30 October 17, 2006
 
 
Tewai Halatau
for PDF

_______________________________________________
PDF mailing list
PDF@lists.drc.org.nz
http://bj.dev-zone.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pdf








 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsiaPacificDisability/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsiaPacificDisability/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:AsiaPacificDisability-digest@yahoogroups.com 
    mailto:AsiaPacificDisability-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    AsiaPacificDisability-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



---
You are currently subscribed to gpdd as: wai-eo-editors@w3.org.
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-gpdd-9124701T@lists.worldbank.org