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Workshop Background : Provisional Aide Memoire
The Emerging Social Issues Division of the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is organizing the "Second
Session of the Biwako Millennium Framework Stakeholders' Coordination
Meeting (BMF-SCM)", which will take place in Bangkok, Thailand from
1 to 2 March 2007. The Meeting is a follow up to the "First
Session of the Biwako Millennium Framework (BMF) Stakeholders’ Coordination
Meeting" held from 17 to 19 July 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand; "Agents
of Change: Workshop on Self-help Organisations of Persons with Disabilities
(SHOs), Related Family and Parents Associations and Women with Disabilities
towards Biwako Plus Five" held from 18 to 20 October 2006 in
Bangkok, Thailand; and "Expert
Group Meeting on the Promotion of Social and Economic Participation of
Persons with Disabilities towards Biwako Plus Five" to be held from
27 to 28 February 2007. It serves as a preparatory meeting for the "High
Level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Mid-point Review of the Asian Pacific
Decade of Disabled Persons" to be held from 19 to 21 September 2007 in
Bangkok, Thailand.
Context
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) was adopted in Otsu City, Shiga, Japan by 28 Governments at the “High
Level Intergovernmental Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific Decade of
Disabled Persons” in October 2002. The BMF is the regional policy guideline
for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012. It promotes
the paradigm shift from a charity based approach to a rights based approach
on disability with seven priority areas for action, 21 time bound targets to
be achieved and 17 strategies to be utilized by 2012.
In line with the mandate set out in the BMF, ESCAP in the first half of
the decade organized 27 workshops and meetings to promote the BMF
implementation in specific thematic areas and to provide tools to monitor
its implementation. ESCAP also contributed towards the elaboration of the
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. To have
an overview of the BMF implementation, ESCAP disseminated ‘Questionnaire on
the implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an
Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with
Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific’ in 2004 and 2005 to Associate/Member
States. The findings of the questionnaires were published in 2006,
‘Disability at a Glance: a Profile of 28 countries and Areas in Asia and the
Pacific’, which gives an overview of the policy development and disability
relevant demography. At the end of 2006, ESCAP disseminated the ‘Questionnaire
on the mid-point review of the implementation of the Biwako Millennium
Framework’, the responses of which are awaited.
The Biwako Millennium Framework sets out in para 63, “A mid-point review
of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action should be conducted. Based on
the review, the targets and strategic plans for the second half of the
Decade may be modified and new targets and strategic plans formulated.”
Also, ESCAP
resolution 61/8 of 18 May 2005 recommends the organization of a high
level intergovernmental meeting in 2007 to consider the document that would
further facilitate the BMF implementation.
During the first half of the Decade, significant normative developments
on disability have taken place, of which the most notable one is the
drafting and adoption of the International Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities. At the same time, the developing countries have
faced unforeseeable challenges like the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, and
the Earthquakes of October 2004 and May 2006, which have had an adverse
impact on the lives of persons with disabilities.
In view of the afore mentioned mandate of the BMF, the developments that
have taken place since its adoption, and the challenges facing the Asian and
Pacific countries, it is essential to review the strategies and policies
adopted in the first half of the Decade and to modify and formulate new
strategies and policies for the second half of the Decade, entitled the
‘Biwako Plus Five’, which would supplement the BMF for the second half of
the Decade.
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