Indigenous persons with disabilities seek improved conditions in Asia-Pacific
Gathering of indigenous persons with disabilities in Bangkok. Photographed by Arthur Allad-iw, InterAksyon.com
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
The online news portal of TV5
BANGKOK, Thailand – Indigenous persons with disabilities (IPWDs) from various organizations in 12 countries of the Asia-Pacific region urged states in the region to improve their grim conditions by ratifying and implementing the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
In the Bangkok declaration, the conference participants said the ratification and implementation of two UN instruments would uplift their conditions as PWDS, indigenous peoples, and as members of the societies who are poor and marginalized.
Mr. Chol O. Han, an officer of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), said that there are an estimated 650 million PWDs in the Asia-Pacific, corresponding to about two-thirds of the world's PWDs.
UNESCAP is the regional development arm of the UN in the region.
As the PWDs are most exposed to discrimination and oppression in every society, UNESCAP adopted the Incheon Strategy, a program that would "make right real" for persons with disabilities in the region, Chol explained.
The Strategy targets 10 goals for PWDs in the region:
Reduce poverty and enhance work and employment prospect
Promote participation in political processes and decision making
Enhance access to physical environment, public transportation, knowledge, information and communication
Strengthen social protection
Expand early intervention and education of children with disabilities
Ensure gender equality and women's empowerment
Ensure disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction and management
Improve the reliability and comparability of disability data
Accelerate the ratification and implementation of the CRPD and the harmonization of national legislation with the convention
Advance subregional, regional and interregional cooperation.
The Incheon Strategy serves as UNESCAP targets for the decades of PWDS in the Asia – Pacific, 2013-2022, Chol added.
The participants also pushed in their declaration the Asia-Pacific states' ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). They said that exploitation by states of their ancestral land, resources, and culture marginalized them more as human being as state-backed corporate projects usually deny them their indigenous life ways.
In the Bangkok declaration, the conference participants said the ratification and implementation of two UN instruments would uplift their conditions as PWDS, indigenous peoples, and as members of the societies who are poor and marginalized.
Mr. Chol O. Han, an officer of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), said that there are an estimated 650 million PWDs in the Asia-Pacific, corresponding to about two-thirds of the world's PWDs.
UNESCAP is the regional development arm of the UN in the region.
As the PWDs are most exposed to discrimination and oppression in every society, UNESCAP adopted the Incheon Strategy, a program that would "make right real" for persons with disabilities in the region, Chol explained.
The Strategy targets 10 goals for PWDs in the region:
Reduce poverty and enhance work and employment prospect
Promote participation in political processes and decision making
Enhance access to physical environment, public transportation, knowledge, information and communication
Strengthen social protection
Expand early intervention and education of children with disabilities
Ensure gender equality and women's empowerment
Ensure disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction and management
Improve the reliability and comparability of disability data
Accelerate the ratification and implementation of the CRPD and the harmonization of national legislation with the convention
Advance subregional, regional and interregional cooperation.
The Incheon Strategy serves as UNESCAP targets for the decades of PWDS in the Asia – Pacific, 2013-2022, Chol added.
The participants also pushed in their declaration the Asia-Pacific states' ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). They said that exploitation by states of their ancestral land, resources, and culture marginalized them more as human being as state-backed corporate projects usually deny them their indigenous life ways.
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