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Workshop Background : Aide Memoire
Governments in the region declared the extension of the
Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, for another
decade, 2003-2012. As policy guidelines for the renewed decade, the
High-level Intergovernmental Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific
Decade of Disabled Persons, Otsu, Shiga, October 2002, adopted the
Biwako
Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and
Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific
(BMF). The BMF promotes the paradigm shift from a charity-based approach
to a rights-based approach to disability and development, and supports the
elaboration of an international convention on the rights of persons with
disabilities.
UNESCAP is mandated to convene biennial meetings to review achievements
and to identify action that may be required to implement the BMF. Regional
meetings should focus one or two of the 7 targets at a time with priority
accorded to self-help groups, access to built environment and poverty
alleviation (Para
60 of the BMF).
Also, in order to achieve the targets of the BMF, Governments in the
region are encouraged to adopt by 2004, a five-year comprehensive national
plan of action that includes policies and programmes for integrating persons
with disabilities into mainstream national development plans (Para
52 of the BMF).
UNESCAP has been making efforts to enhance the understanding of policy
makers and NGOs on the BMF, and organize a specific regional meeting on
review and monitoring of the implementation of the BMF at the inception as a
baseline for further planning. At the same time, UNESCAP is promoting a
rights-based approach through a set of activities to support the elaboration
of an international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (Para
53 of the BMF). Through promoting the BMF, governments are expected to
increase in priority accorded to, and mainstreaming of, emerging social
issues, in particular the equalization of opportunities for persons with
disabilities, into policies and programmes of government and civil society.
The immediate objective of this particular Workshop is to analyze achievements and shortcomings in implementation of the BMF
to date and to discuss principles of and practical steps to development and
implementation of a comprehensive national policy on
disability.
Each UNESCAP-funded participant must submit a completed "Questionnaire on
the Implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an
Inclusvie, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with
Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (BMF)", and prepare a
brief country paper. The guideline for the
paper will be made available in due course.
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