Agents of Change: Workshop on Self-help Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (SHOs), Related Family and Parents Associations and Women with Disabilities towards Biwako Plus five
18-20 October 2006, Bangkok, Thailand

Inclusive development and the roles of self-help organizations of persons with disabilities in the full implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action*

Yutaka Takamine,
Professor, Ryukyu University, Japan

I. Introduction

The Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons was extended from 2003 to 2012 by resolution 58/4 adopted in May 2002 and the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific was adopted as the regional framework for Governments, regional and international organizations and other stakeholders to implement the second regional Decade of disabled persons which started in 2003.

This paper reviews and appraises new developments in disability and related field at the regional and international levels since the declaration of the second Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, and new roles of self-help organizations/groups and family and related organizations, as well as women with disabilities, in the implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action.

Chapter II includes new developments in disability and related fields, including (a) agreement of the draft international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities by the Ad Hoc Committee, (b) progress observed in the promotion of inclusive development, (c) new development in the area of disability statistics, (d) impact of the recent natural disasters (e.g., tsunami and earthquakes) on the vulnerable groups including persons with disabilities and older persons, and redevelopment of affected areas to improve accessibility as well as development of disaster prevention measures for those who are vulnerable in the emergency situation, (e) impacts HIV/AIDS on disabled population, and (f) update on the information society.

Chapter III covers new roles of self-help organizations/groups and related organizations and women with disabilities in the implementation of BMF.

II. New opportunities and challenges affecting the full implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action

The review and appraisal of the implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action during the first half of the second Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003- 2012, have been conducted in a rapidly changing global situation. Since 2003, a number of issues have gained prominence and acquired new dimensions which create new opportunities and pose additional challenges to the full and accelerated implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action by Governments, intergovernmental bodies, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations including self-help organizations of persons with disabilities. Renewed political commitment to persons with disabilities in development at all levels is needed for the full implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action and for the achievement of all the targets and strategies.

A. Agreement of the draft international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities by the Ad Hoc Committee

General Assembly resolution 58/248 adopted in 2001 created the Ad Hoc Committee to elaborate an international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. After five years of negotiations, countries meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York have agreed on a new treaty to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.@The Ad Hoc Committee agreed on a draft of the international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. The convention will be formally sent to the General Assembly for adoption at its sixty-first session, which begins in September 2006. It will then be open for signing and ratification by all countries.

The First Session of the Ad Hoc Committee started in July 2002. In preparation to its second session the Ad Hoc Committee decided to seek views and suggestions on a convention by States and all relevant international, regional and national organizations. At its Second Session, from 16-27 June 2003, the Committee decided to establish a Working Group with the aim of preparing and presenting a draft text of a convention, which would be the basis for negotiation by Member States. The Group would take into account all previous contributions submitted to the Ad Hoc Committee. The Working Group, composed of representatives of Member States, non-governmental organizations and a national human rights institution, met from 5 to 16 January 2004. The Ad Hoc Committee started its negotiation on a draft convention at its Third Session from 24 May to 4 June 2004, based on the draft text prepared by the Working Group. During the eight session of the Ad Hoc Committee, the final agreement on the draft convention was reached in August 2006.

For the making of the draft convention, contributions of the Asian and Pacific region have been significant. The Bangkok draft was used as the Chairperson's draft for the consideration of the draft convention by the Ad Hoc Committee. The unique process of the Ad Hoc Committee was the active participation of NGOs of persons with disabilities. Numerous NGOs represented by persons with disabilities engaged in the drafting process and played an important role to contribute to the comprehensive

When the convention is adopted, States will be obligated to introduce measures that promote the human rights of persons with disabilities without discrimination. These measures include enacting anti-discrimination legislation, eliminating laws and practices that discriminate against persons with disabilities, and considering persons with disabilities when adopting new policies and programmes[1]. Other measures include making services, goods and facilities accessible to persons with disabilities.

It is important for self-help organizations of persons with disabilities and their supporting organizations to pursue the ratification of the convention by member Governments through their collective efforts. To this end, disabled peoples' organizations should develop specific strategies to work with Governments.

B. An emerging trend to promote inclusive development to achieve poverty reduction

The World Bank and other international development banks and agencies drew up international development goals. Those goals were strengthened and adopted as millennium development goals (MDGs) by all United Nations member-governments at the world millennium summit in 2000. Among important MDG targets are poverty reduction by half and universal primary education, by 2015. MDGs also include a target to reduce by half the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water by the same year. According to an estimate by the World Bank, persons with disabilities are the poorest of the poor and constitute about 15 to 20 per cent of the poor today.^[2] One third of the total poor population is disabled persons in China.^[3] Thus, poverty is both a cause and consequence of disability. Poverty and disability reinforce one another, contributing to increased vulnerability and exclusion.

The international development community has come to realization that without addressing disability issues, it would be difficult to reduce poverty in the world. The World Bank took an initiative to include disability into its development activities, and other multilateral and bilateral development banks have joined the initiative. This section reviews an emerging trend among multilateral and bilateral development banks and agencies to include disability concerns into their development works.

1. The World Bank

The World Bank is the leader of development banks with its expenditure totaling US$20 billion in 2004 and employs over 10,000 staff worldwide. The World Bank board of governors in 1998 decided to include disability issues into its own development activities. Since then, the Bank appointed the Advisor on Disability and Development in 2002, and in December in the same year organized the first World Bank Conference on Disability and Development to declare that the Bank would include disability into its development activities. James D. Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank, stated in his inaugural speech at the Conference, "Unless disabled people are brought into the development mainstream, it will be impossible to cut poverty in half by 2015 or to give every girl and boy the chance to achieve a primary education by the same date -- goals agreed to by more than 180 world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000". The Bank has established the Disability and Development Team as well as regional working groups on disability within its regions to pursue this goal.

Global Partnership for Disability and Development: In 2003, with the initiative of the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD) was established. GPDD is a network of organizations of persons with disabilities, non-governmental organizations in social development, international private funding organizations, United Nations Organizations as well as multilateral and bilateral development banks. Members meet twice a year to discuss inclusive development and disability. GPDD intents to establish a multi-donor fund of US$400,000 to support its network. GPDD is expected to play a significant role to create a network which bridges between organizations and agencies working in the field of disability and the mainstream development agencies and organizations.

Disability Research: The Bank has been active in disability research. It has been partnering with the UN Statistical Commission's Washington Group on Disability Measurement (WG) to develop improved data instruments. The Bank supported WG's work with a $285,000 Development Grant Facility (DGF). The WG is pilot-testing census questions on disability, and is beginning work on survey instruments. Disability is being incorporated in a growing number of Bank research projects including primary data collection (e.g., Afghanistan, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Kenya). In addition, using poverty mapping techniques, the Bank is developing a methodology for estimating the poverty rates of small vulnerable groups and applying it to several countries in 2005. A qualitative data instrument focusing on how disability affects family dynamics is also in development, as is a study on service delivery to disabled people in Indonesia, a regional study of disability in Europe and Central Asia (ECA), and a study of cash transfer programs in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC)[4].

Establishment and inclusion of accessibility standards into infrastructure projects: Putting all children worldwide in school by 2015 will constitute the biggest building project the world has ever seen. Some 10 million new classrooms will be constructed in over 100 countries to achieve the universal primary education^[5]. This is an excellent opportunity to create accessible classrooms which can accommodate a large number of children with disabilities in many countries. This situation calls for the establishment of explicit policy among international development banks and government development agencies to ensure that all new constructions of schools/classrooms are fully accessible for children and youth with disabilities.

Furthermore, infrastructure has a key role to play in terms of supporting the MDGs, poverty reduction, and growth, the World Bank Group has recently decided to re-engage in infrastructure.[6] The Bank's infrastructure projects include, water and sanitation, modern energy, road and other aspects of transport, and access to modern information communication technology.

The Bank has already drafted guidelines entitled "Including Accessibility Features/Universal Design in Infrastructure and Human Development Project", and presented in March 2006 for public comments. The draft guidelines indicate that it would respect existing national accessibility standards supplemented by available international accessibility standards that are acceptable by the Bank. As the Inter-America Development Bank (IDB) as well as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has already developed and included accessibility standards into its infrastructure projects, it is most likely that the World Bank will adopt guidelines to include accessibility standards into its infrastructure projects.

There will be a greater role to play by self-help organizations of persons with disabilities and other supporting organizations which have been promoting accessibility and universal and inclusive design in the region in collaboration with the World Bank and other financial institutions.

Inclusion of disability into poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP): Developing or strengthening a poverty reduction strategy is on the agenda of about 70 low-income countries, most immediately in the countries receiving debt relief under the enhanced HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative. The resulting Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) will be broadly endorsed by the World Bank and IMF boards as the basis of concessional assistance from the two institutions.

The most relevant papers on disability and the PRSP's are: Disability and Poverty Reduction Strategies. How to ensure that access of persons with disabilities to decent and productive work is part of the PRSP processbyInternational Labor Organization(ILO), November 2002; and Poverty Reduction Strategies: Their Importance for Disability by The World Bank (René Bonnel and Disability and Development Team), July 2004.

The ILO paper indicated that despite the fact that persons with disabilities in developing countries belong to the poorest of the poor and the PRSP process might seem as their unique chance to be integrated in socio-economic development and poverty reduction initiatives, this has not proven to be the case. Except for a few cases disability has not been addressed in any specificity in the interim PRSP's completed so far. A category like "vulnerable groups", though useful at certain levels of analysis, becomes an obstacle when it hides essential differences in poverty determinants of various vulnerable sub-groups and in strategies to apply. Based on this paper, ILO is now preparing guidelines on the integration on disability and persons with disabilities in poverty reduction measures and PRSPs.

In its 20004 paper, the Bank's Disability and Development Team reviewed in total 33 PRSPs and 11 Progress Reports. Eight recent Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) and two Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs) were also reviewed to check the extent to which the initial policy commitment of PRSPs was reflected in the Bank's own strategy and policy-based lending.

The paper concluded that a global commitment to ensuring the full economic and social integration of disabled persons is now in place. The implementation of the increased worldwide commitment to addressing the constraints faced by disabled people is, however, constrained by: (i) a lack of information on the specific situation and needs of disabled people; (ii) the delivery of disability interventions through mostly ineffective small-scale projects; and (iii) a patchwork of often inconsistent and counterproductive disability policies. Based on its review, it recommended the following measures:

• PRSP Guidelines need to be developed. They would identify the key elements of disability policy that need to be addressed during the preparation of PRSPs. Given its multi-sectoral dimension, disability should be treated as a cross-cutting issue in PRSP documents.
• A working definition of disability needs to be formulated in line with international definition. This definition would provide a common framework for carrying out qualitative and quantitative analysis of census and surveys. Most of this work has been initiated by the Washington City group with the goal of testing one or two sets of questions in Censuses in several developing countries.
• A Disability Action Plan should be prepared based on a strong participatory process. It would outline a multi-sectoral approach and priorities for interventions. This Action Plan should be informed by sectoral reports, including poverty assessments, which would provide an in-depth analysis of the poverty dimensions of disabled persons, and in particular, of the mechanisms that result in the exclusion of disabled persons from poverty reduction programs.
• The implementation and monitoring of interventions should be scaled up. To achieve this objective, the costs of disability interventions should be estimated and translated into annual government budgets and their implementation should be monitored with participation of Disabled People's Organizations. At a minimum, indicators should include: (i) the number and percentage of disabled children enrolled in school; and (ii) the number and percentage of disabled adults employed.
• The implementation of disability interventions should be mainstreamed in other policy documents that are linked to PRSPs. These include Country Assistance Strategies and Poverty Reduction Support Credits.

East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region of the Bank: One of the most active regions within the Bank is the East Asia and the Pacific region (EAP), which includes East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands countries. In 2003, EAP commissioned a report to review the situation of persons with disabilities in the region and make recommendations for the inclusion of disability issues into its regional activities. The report is titled Disability Issues in East Asia: Review and Ways Forward, (Takamine, Y., Human Development Sector Unit, East Asia and the Pacific Region, World Bank, May 2004). The report recommended inter alia that EAP establish a regional focal point to promote disability inclusion within the region and to coordinate with the Advisor and her disability and development team.

EAP was also collaborating with the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in the area of accessibility. The three parties commissioned a paper on accessibility titled, Infrastructure services and social inclusion for people with disabilities and older persons in East Asia and the Pacific (Takamine, Y., World Bank, 2004) under the study Infrastructure in East Asia: Providing Effective and Sustainable Infrastructure Services Throughout the Region. The paper focused on issues on accessible transportation in East Asia.

Good practice: Velugu project concerning formation of self-help groups of persons with disabilities in Andre Pradesh, India: Andhra Pradesh has 75 million people and is one of the poorest states in India. It started poverty reduction project with a loan from the World Bank in 2000. The project named "Velugu" (light in Indian language) aims to reduce poverty through the formation of poor women into self-help groups. It targeted 3 million poor people. In its phase II (2003-2005), persons with disabilities were included. The disability components consist of the establishment of social identity of persons with disabilities, group action skills and advocacy.

Ten to fifteen persons with disabilities are encouraged to form a self-help group (SHG) at the village level, and several of such SHGs in turn form a village level organization. The district federation will be formed by the village level organizations. Through regular discussion among members, persons with disabilities go through empowerment process and their federation will gain political power as its number grows. Individual members as well as SHGs have access to microfinance and are able to engage in income generation activities to achieve economic independence.

With support of local government as well as non-governmental organizations, SHGs and their federations plan and implement various medical and rehabilitation programs, including surgical camps and provision of assistive devises. SHGs also organize community-based rehabilitation programs at the village level to provide rehabilitation training, day care services for children as well as persons with disabilities.

So far 107,000 persons with disabilities have been organized into 12,000 SHGs. Among them 9,000 groups have established saving accounts at banks, 5,700 SHGs have received training on SHG concept and operation, income generation activities, capacity building, leadership, saving, rights of persons with disabilities. Those SHGs have formed 170 district level federations. To improve their livelihood, SHGs have used US$2.2 million. 475 SHGs have bank loans totaling US$271,000, and US$390,000 have been provided to over 2,000 SHGs as revolving funds or matching funds. The evaluation of such massive projects is expected to show that a large number of poor persons with disabilities in rural area will go through empowerment process and achieve economic independence by overcoming poverty. The formation of self-help groups may be considered as an effective modality for a large number of rural poor persons with disabilities in the region to achieve empowerment.

2. Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Since ADB changed its overarching goal to poverty reduction in 1999, a significant amount of regional and country-based activities on disability have been developed. For instance, disability projects, such as ADB's Expanding Employment Opportunities for Poor Disabled Persons, implemented in the three largest cities of Mongolia. Its expected outcomes were to provide employment services, including training, for about 4,000 disabled persons, to support about 50 businesses, and to provide employment to about 300 disabled persons, with 1.2 million US dollars.

In late 1999, the first ADB Workshop on Disability held in Manila concluded with two main recommendations: strengthening ADB's capacity to address the disability dimension in its operations; strengthening developing member countries' capacity to mainstream disability. To achieve these recommendations, the ADB approved a regional study to explore disability issues in the region. Provincial and National workshops have been developed in Cambodia, India, Philippines and Sri Lanka - over 1000 persons with disabilities, their families, disability experts and local disability NGOs participated in the consultations. On October 2002, high level representatives from governments, regional development agencies, international disabled persons' organizations and people with disabilities were invited to Manila to speak for themselves at ADB's Disability and Development Workshop. In 2005, country report of the above four countries were published, and at the same time, Disability Brief: Identifying and Addressing the Needs of Disabled People was published. The publication includes a checklist for inclusion of disability into ADB's activities. It also contains checklists for county strategies, project design as well as different sectors.

Although ADB has formulated checklists for operation, it has not designated a focal point on disability. ADB has not developed accessibility standards for its infrastructure projects. It is expected that ADB which has already done the grand work for disability will easily network with collaborating bodies such as EAP of the World Bank and JBIC to promote the inclusion of disability concerns in the development work in the Asian and Pacific region.

3. Other multilateral and bilateral development banks and agencies

Other development banks and agencies have indicated to include disability concerns into their development activities.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have shown leadership in the area of inclusive development. IDB is active in developing capacity on disability statistics among its member governments. IDB created the Disability Section which has three full time staff and established the Operational Guidelines on Accessibility in Urban Development Projects in 2005. The Operational Guidelines are binding and enforced for all the IDB's infrastructure projects. The Organization of America States launched the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006 to 2016). IDB is expected to play an important role to support the latest regional Decade of persons with disabilities.

USAID is the most advanced in terms of inclusion of disability concerns into its policy and operation. USAID issued "USAID disability policy paper" in 1997, which was the first of its kind formulated by multilateral and bilateral development banks and agencies. It says that USAID policy on disability is "To avoid discrimination against people with disabilities in programs which USAID funds and to stimulate an engagement of host country counterparts, governments, implementing organizations and other donors in promoting a climate of nondiscrimination against and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The USAID policy on disability is to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities both within USAID programs and in host countries where USAID has programs."

In 2004, USAID formulated "USAID Policy on Standards for Accessibility for the Disabled in USAID-financed Construction". This guidance provides standards for any new or renovation construction project funded by USAID to allow access by people with disabilities and the use of these standards is required in all USAID acquisition and assistance for construction and alteration. This policy on accessibility standards are also the first binding standards that have been issued by international development banks and agencies.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) was established in October 1999 as an organization that conducts Japan's economic policy and economic cooperation.JBIC as the major funding agency in Asia funded two subway projects in New Delhi, India and Bangkok, Thailand, that have been constructed with full accessibility for persons with disabilities. In March 2006, JBIC commissioned reports on the inclusion of accessibility concerns into its infrastructure projects.

JBIC collaborates with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which is responsible for technical cooperation, at all levels of the project cycle, i.e., project formation, preparation, implementation and post-completion maintenance and monitoring. JICA has provided various programs to promote the full participation and equality of persons with disabilities, including dispatching overseas volunteers, organizing leadership training courses for persons with disabilities from developing countries, and proving technical assistance in education, vocational training, accessible environment, development of sign languages and others. In 2003, JICA developed a policy on disability and development. It adopts a twin track approach in its policy statement. The policy states that all infrastructure projects under JICA are to be fully accessible. JICA is now considering strategies on how to translate the policy into operations at the field level.

JICA and the Government of Thailand have initiated a project to create the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD), to commemorate the conclusion of the first Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002. The Center has been focusing on the training of persons with disabilities and their supporters, collection and dissemination of information on disability, and promoting barrier-free society in the region. JICA has provided funds to build a training and information center and to implement training programs, as well as dispatched experts to support the management of the Center. APCD supports the implementation of the extended Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012.

In European development agencies, in particular Scandinavian counties (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands and Norway), self-help organizations of persons with disabilities take an active role in provision of international assistance to counterpart organizations of persons with disabilities in the developing countries.

C. New challenge posed by natural disasters

On December 26, 2004, a massive earthquake occurred under the Indian Ocean just off the coast of Indonesia. The 9.0 magnitude quake created a series of tsunamis that caused great destruction and loss of life throughout the Indian Ocean basin, within several hours of the initial event. More than 200,000 people were killed when an earthquake beneath the ocean sent giant waves crashing ashore. Places as far apart as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Somalia were affected by the disaster. Worst affected was the Indonesian province of Aceh, closest to the quake epicentre, where more than two-thirds of the deaths occurred.

APCD news reported that "On 8 October 2005, an earthquake with the magnitude of 7.6 hit Pakistan and India. The North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Azad Gammu and Kashmir (AJK) in Pakistan were most heavily damaged. More than 78,000 were killed and an estimated 100,000 people became disabled. About three-quarters of the victims were women in their homes at the time of the earthquake. Their houses fell down on the residents resulting in many spinal cord injuries. It was reported that several hundred cases of spinal cord injuries were transferred to medical facilities in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Many wounds became infected due to a lack of medical facilities resulting in amputations of arms and legs".

In recent years, the Asian and Pacific region experienced several unprecedented natural disasters, including the above-mentioned Indian Ocean earthquakes and resulting massive tsunamis and the Pakistan and Indian earthquakes. The recent massive natural disasters thus pose a new challenge in creating effective preventive measures and systems which are accessible for persons with disabilities, as well as prompt emergency rescue measures and post-disaster redevelopment process to ensure inclusion of persons with disabilities.

In the recent disaster situations, self-help organizations of persons with disabilities have taken initiatives to survey the disaster areas and action to implement effective relief measures, as well as redevelopment of the affected areas, in collaboration with government agencies and other international and local NGOs and to respond to the needs of those disabled by the disasters.

The recent disaster situations have pointed out the following critical issues:

• Emergency relief measures should be improved to ensure assistance to vulnerable groups including persons with disabilities.
• Post-disaster redevelopment process should ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups, e.g., persons with disabilities, older persons, women and children
• Inclusion of accessibility standards should be ensured in the post-disaster redevelopment process of infrastructure damaged by natural disasters.
• When preventive measures are developed, such measures should be fully inclusive of persons with disabilities. For example, a tsunami warning system should be fully accessible by persons with disabilities, especially by blind persons, deaf and hard-of-hearing persons and persons with cognitive disabilities.

D. Impact of the rapid progression of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly in the developing world, on persons with disabilities

HIV/AIDS is prevalent among many developing countries in the region, and governments are making serious efforts to containment it. In the area of HIV/AIDS prevention, a little attention has been given so far to the risk of HIV/AIDS for individuals who have a physical, sensory, intellectual, or mental health disability before becoming infected. Disabled individuals both male and female are more likely to be victims of sexual abuse and rape than their non-disabled peers due to their physical vulnerability, needs for assistance, and other reasons. For children with intellectually disability, rape is a leading concern for their well-being. It is estimated that 30% of street children have some type of disability and they are rarely reached by safe sex campaigns.

As literacy rates of disabled persons are very low, messages about HIV/AIDS are difficult to reach them. Although there is no data available, a growing number of stories from disability advocates point to significant unreported rates of infection, disease, and death of persons with disabilities. There is a real need to understand the issues of HIV/AIDS in disabled persons and to design and implement HIV/AIDS prevention programs which address the needs of persons with disabilities.[7] Self-help organizations of persons with disabilities could play an important role to initiate awareness raising campaigns and training of their members on HIV/AIDS in collaboration with concerned NGOs and government agencies.

E. Improving definition of disability and collection of disability statistics

The Washington Group on Disability Measruements has been operating under the aegis of the United Nations Statistical Commission since 2002. The main purpose of the Washington Group is the promotion and co-ordination of international co-operation in the area of health statistics by focusing on disability measures suitable for censuses and national surveys. In keeping with this purpose, the Washington Group has developed a short set of questions on disability that address the issue of assessing equalization of opportunity. The question set is intended for use primarily in census formats and to provide international comparability of the resulting data. Pre-tests of these questions have been initiated in approximately 11 countries and will be completed by June 2006. The pre-tests have been designed to determine how well the Washington Group questions perform across different countries and cultures[8]. As mentioned earlier, the World Bank is currently supporting the activities of the Washington Group. The question set developed by the Washington Group could be promoted for use in the countries of the region.

F. World Summit on Information Society and ICT accessibility of persons with disabilities

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in two phases. The first phase was hosted by the Government of Switzerland in Geneva from 10-12 December 2003. It addressed a broad range of themes concerning Information Society and adopted a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. The Plan of Action is an evolving platform to promote the Information Society at the national, regional and international levels. The objectives of the Plan of Action are to build an inclusive Information Society; to put the potential of knowledge and ICTs at the service of development; to promote the use of information and knowledge for the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, and to address new challenges of the Information Society, at the national, regional and international levels.

The WSIS documents are the first mainstream global documents which include disability-related text. In the two documents, there are many references to persons with disabilities, such as universal design and the use of assistive technologies (Declaration of Principles, Para. 25), special requirements of persons with disabilities in ICT capacity building (Declaration Principles, Para. 30), web accessibility standard (Plan of Action, Para. 28 E), etc. (See more detail from WSIS web site at http://www.itu.int/wsis)[9]

III. Roles of self-help organizations of persons with disabilities, family and related organizations, women with disabilities, in the implementation of BMF

The previous chapter revealed changes which may pose challenges as well as opportunities in the field of disabilities. The following chapter discusses new roles of self-help organizations of persons with disabilities in response to the changes discussed in the previous chapter.

Since the draft international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities was agreed by the Ad Hoc Committee in August 2006, and has been submitted to the General Assembly for discuss and adoption at its sixty-first session, self-help organizations of persons with disabilities should be prepared to engage in further action to elaborate the new human rights treaty of the twenty-first century. At this juncture, self-help organizations of persons with disabilities and their allied associations should:

1. Actively participate in campaigns to pursue their governments and parliament to ratify the convention;
2. Raise awareness and provide training on the international convention among their members, concerned government officials, NGO staff as well as the general public:
3. (Regional and international organizations of persons with disabilities) prepare a tool kit on the ratification process and how to advocate for the ratification by their own government; and provide training of trainers programs for its national member organizations;
4. Work in collaboration with legal professional associations to survey national laws and regulations which might limit the rights of persons with disabilities as well as to prepare for the enactment of disability anti-discrimination legislation, if such legislation does not exist.
   Promotion of inclusive development is anther focus of the Biwako millennium framework for action and in response to increasingly active participation of multilateral and bilateral development banks and agencies in inclusive development, self-help organizations of persons with disabilities, their allied associations should:
5. (5) Work closely with government agencies and NGOs in the field of rural and urban development, poverty reduction and others, with a view to ensuring that disability concerns be appropriately included in national poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP):
6. Actively participate in research on disability and poverty, and conduct participatory research on various issues concerning disability and development;
7. Work closely with multilateral and bilateral development banks and agencies to promote inclusive development through providing the first hand information about disability, technical knowledge and skills on how to include disability concerns into their development works; and networking with other stakeholders in the field of disabilities;
8. In case of natural disasters, take initiative to survey the needs of the affected people who have been disabled and work with other relief organizations and national and international agencies to ensure appropriate treatment of vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, older persons, women and children, and follow up to ensure that those who have been injured or disabled will receive appropriate medical and rehabilitation services;
9. At the post-disaster period, be actively involved in the reconstruction process of the affected areas and regions so that accessibility standards/universal and inclusive design should be fully included in its reconstruction process.
10. When developing new prevention measures/warning systems, take active roles to ensure that such measures and systems are fully accessible for all, including blind persons, deaf and hard of hearing persons, persons with cognitive limitation, if necessary by using information and communication technologies ICT) as well as assistive technologies.
11. Take active role to advocate among HIV/AIDS agencies and organizations for the prevention of HIV/AIDS among persons with various disabilities through raising awareness and providing critical information in appropriate accessible format.
    

* This paper has been prepared by Mr Yutaka Takamine, Professor, Faculty of Law and Letters, University of the Ryukyus, Japan, for the Agents of Change: Workshop on Self-help Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (SHOs), Related Family and Parents Associations and Women with Disabilities towards Biwako Plus Five, 18-20 October 2006, Bangkok. The paper has been reproduced as submitted. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.

[1] http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/about.shtml#5

[2] Elawan, Ann, "Poverty and disability: a survey of the literature", World Bank, 1999, p.v.

[3] ILO report on China, August 2002, p. 30. (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/ability/download/china.doc)

[4] The World Bank, "Disability and development and the World Bank: A briefing summary of February 2, 2005"

[5] World Bank, Education for all: Building the schools, Education Notes, August 2003.

[6] World Bank, "Infrastructure Action Plan", submitted to an Informal Board Meeting, July 8, 2003, p.4.

[7] Based on an article by Groce, N, "HIV/AIDS and people with disability", The Lancet, Vol. 361, April 2003

[8] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/citygroup.htm

[9] Monthian Buntan, APCD website: http://www.apcdproject.org/trainings/web-based04/materials/monthian/Slide/slide9-0.html

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