|
Seminars |
| Seminars | Resources | About | |
Interregional Seminar and Symposium on III. Organization of work and attendanceA. Opening of the Seminar1. Opening and welcoming remarksThe Honourable Dr. E.K. Yeoh, JP, Secretary for Health and Welfare, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China opened the Interregional seminar on international norms and standards relating to disability (Annex III). Dr Yeoh stated that disability was a global concern, affecting some 10 percent of the global population. He observed that some have said, "disability is the only minority that maintains open enrolment 24 hours a day, 365 days a year". The rights of persons with disabilities were human rights as expressed in the guidelines contained in the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1993. Hong Kong was committed by the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to respect the human rights of each individual in society. The development of policies for persons with disabilities in Hong Kong had been similar to elsewhere: from basic care in institutions to education for children and rehabilitation, and culminating in equalization of opportunities for the disabled. Through education and rehabilitation, persons with disabilities no longer passively accepted what was given to them but actively asserted themselves and were confident in their own abilities to lead independent lives. The Hong Kong Government had identified three policy objectives for rehabilitation: (a) preventing disability, (b) developing full potential of the disabled, and (c) encouraging full participation and equalization of opportunities. Rehabilitation services were provided through the joint efforts of governmental departments, statutory bodies and over 90 non-governmental organizations, including many self-help organisations. In 1999-2000 Hong Kong would spend about HK$14.5 billion (US$1.9 billion) on rehabilitation, representing 5 percent of total governmental recurrent expenditures, or over 1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). There was always a need to re-think the most cost-effective way to target resources to people in most need. Since the Disability Discrimination Ordinance came into force in 1996, the Government and non-governmental organizations had embarked on public education exercises each year to tackle prejudice and apathy in the community. Although progress had been made, Hong Kong still had a way to go. Unless one could change attitudes in the community concerning persons with disabilities, none of the legal accomplishments would mean anything. Dr. Yeoh noted that many advances had been made in the area of technology to place persons with disabilities on a level playing field with other members of society. Yet more needed to be done. In many situations persons with disabilities were unable to use and benefit from the same technologies as others. It was therefore important to ask questions such as, "how could this [technology] work for a person with visual impairment?"; "could a person in a wheelchair operate this equipment?" Whether historians will label this the computer age or information age, Dr Yeoh expressed the hope that it would also be remembered as a new age of opportunity for persons with disabilities. Welcoming statements were made by Ms. Anna Wu Hung-yuk, Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission Hong Kong (Annex V), and Prof. Albert H. Y. Chen, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong (Annex VI). Ms. Wu welcomed the participants in the seminar on behalf of the Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). She recalled that one of the recommendations of the “Consultative Expert Group Meeting on International Norms and Standards relating to Disability (Berkeley, 8-12 December 1998),”[5] convened by the Division for Social Policy and Development of the United Nations Secretariat in cooperation with Boalt Hall School of Law of the University of California at Berkeley (USA) and the World Institute on Disability, was the organization of regional and interregional forums to develop strategies for practical action to promote the rights of people with disabilities. The Hong Kong Interregional Seminar and Symposium represented concrete follow-up to the recommendation of the Berkeley expert meeting. Ms. Wu expressed her pleasure that EOC had been entrusted by the United Nations Secretariat with the organisation of this important project in collaboration with the Centre for Comparative and Public Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong. The Seminar and Symposium were timely contributions to global efforts to equalize opportunities for persons with disabilities and to further implement the goals of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002).[6] A unique feature of the Hong Kong Seminar would be its emphasis on accessible Internet technologies, an important element of present-day disability activism. The issue of information accessibility involved not only basic human rights but was a fundamental consideration in the empowerment of people with disabilities. In the “information age” one could quickly become disadvantaged if one were not able to access the large amount of information, which would is being made available to everybody. For persons with sensory disabilities, difficulties in accessing information have long been a major barrier to their full participation in society. The emergence of the global Internet and its rapid popularisation was giving a new perspective to the issue of information. Because information on the Internet generally was free and could be obtained at one's home, it should be most accessible to people with disabilities and could be a useful tool for their empowerment. On the other hand, if Internet-enabled resources and services and the information therein were not in accessible format, these would be of little benefit to them and may actually work against their empowerment. As communications via the Internet became the norm, inaccessibility of the Internet could result in people with disabilities quickly becoming marginalized. In this regard Ms. Wu noted that a two-day training workshop on disability rights and advocacy with online interaction between workshop participants and an international training team based outside Hong Kong would take place during the Seminar. This would be an experimental approach to national capacity building by using accessible Internet technologies for presentation of content and for distance collaboration. A special session of the Seminar also would address the question of accessible information technology. The question had special relevance for Hong Kong since Government was about to promote widely the use of information technology in both the provision of public services and in commercial activities. Taking into consideration the needs of persons with disabilities at the design stage in the development of new technologies would be much easier and more economical than taking subsequent remedial actions. Ms Wu stated that the vision of the EOC was to create a barrier-free society for all, irrespective of disability -- a society free not just from physical barriers but also barriers to access to education, to health care services, to other social services and facilities and equally, if not more importantly, to information. Professor Chen welcomed participants of the Seminar on behalf of the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong and its Centre for Comparative and Public Law and expressed his sincere gratitude to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development for their roles in the organisation of the seminar. He recalled the adoption in 1992 by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific of the “Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region” at the launch of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002) and noted that many obstacles still stood in the way of achieving the goal of full enjoyment of rights of persons with disabilities. He also took note of changes that had taken place in global social policy on disability since the 1970s, in particular the change from a welfare approach to disability to a rights-based development model. There had been significant advances in the development of international human rights standards by the United Nations since 1945, but the implications and opportunities that these instruments provided for persons with disabilities had yet to be fully explored and utilized. Professor Chen described developments in the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in Hong Kong both through general human rights protections under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and, since 1 July 1997, under the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as under the Disability Discrimination Ordinance enacted in 1995. The Faculty of Law and the Centre for Comparative and Public Law had carried out work in the fields of discrimination and of law. Professor Chen acknowledged that, despite these achievements, Hong Kong had a way to go before it could be truly said that persons with disabilities fully enjoyed equal opportunities in all fields of life. Much still needed to be done in areas such as overcoming the effects of past planning and building practices, attitudes of many in the community towards persons with disabilities, and certain practices in Government, business and education that did not take into account fully the needs of persons with disabilities. 2. Message from President of the fifty-fourth session of United Nations General AssemblyH.E. Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab (Minster of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Namibia), President of the fifty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly sent an opening Message to the Seminar, which was read by a representative of the United Nations (Annex IV). In his message Dr. Gurirab recalled the concern of the United Nations with issues related to the advancement of persons with disabilities, which was rooted in its founding principles. The commitment of the international community to promote the rights of persons with disabilities is embodied in all the major human rights instruments. Dr. Gurirab observed that the Seminar was a welcome, innovative and unique undertaking to translate the commitment of the international community into concrete policies, strategies and programmes aimed at furthering equalisation of opportunities by, for and with persons with disabilities. He expressed his "heartfelt congratulations" to the organisers and participants of the Seminar and commended the Equal Opportunities Commission and the University of Hong Kong for taking up the significant challenge, which would continue to face us in the new millennium, of making our societies truly accessible, caring and inclusive for all. 3. PresentationsMs. Wu presented certificates of appreciation to the resource persons for the Seminar and to the United Nations Secretariat for their co-operation and assistance:
Ms Liu Jiarong, Deputy Director-General and Director of the Division of International Co-operation, China Disabled Persons' Federation, made presentations to Seminar resource persons and to the United Nations Secretariat in recognition of their assistance to the Seminar. 4. Demonstration of online collaborationIn line with the interest of Seminar organizers with accessible information technologies, the Seminar had a demonstration of on-line exchanges of information using assistive technologies (Braille interface device) between Dr. Yeoh and Mr. Kim Mok (Hong Kong Council of Social Services, Information Technology Services Division). B. Organization of the Seminar1. Seminar background, scope and purposesIn remarks describing the background, scope and purposes of the Seminar a representative of the United Nations expressed the considerable appreciation of the Organization to the Equal Opportunities Commission Hong Kong and to the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong for their initiative in organizing the Seminar. The topic of the Seminar was timely and responded to priorities at international and regional levels. The United Nations General Assembly recently had re-affirmed the priority to be accorded to accessibility in the design of policies and programmes to further equalisation of opportunities by, for and with persons with disabilities. Member States of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific had identified the period of 1993-2002 as the "Asia-Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons" with the theme of promoting full participation and equality of persons with disabilities. Over the past six months, the Division for Social Policy and Development of the United Nations Secretariat had joined as a partner with both inter-governmental and governmental bodies as well as the non-governmental community and the private sector to organise a series of technical exchanges on accessibility and persons with disabilities: (1) The current Seminar at Hong Kong, from 13 to 17 December 1999, which would examine accessible policy design, evaluation and related instruments as well as empowerment of persons with disabilities to further equalisation of opportunities. (2) From 30 November to 3 December 1999 in Beirut, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, in co-operation with the Government of Lebanon (Ministry of Social Affairs) and SOLIDERE, the Lebanese Company for the Planning and Redevelopment of the Beirut Central District, organised the “International Seminar on Environmental Accessibility,” which considered issues in planning and design of accessible urban development in developing countries.[7] (3) From 12 to16 July 1999, the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in co-operation with the National Institute for Development Administration of Thailand organised the “ASEAN Seminar on Internet Accessibility and Persons with Disabilities”.[8] The Seminar is co-financed by a grant from the United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability, as project INT/99/D27,[9] in line with the mandate of the Fund to promote technical exchanges on priority issues and topics in the field of disability. The support of the Fund allowed participation by experts in their individual capacities and members of civil society to contribute to the Seminar proceedings. In addition, a special purpose Internet site had been was established in support of the Seminar, in co-operation with the private sector, at http://www.worldenable.net to promote open approaches to the sharing of knowledge and experience in the field of disability.[10] 2. Election of officersThe Seminar conducted its work in plenary and small, open-ended groups organized in connection with its three issue clusters. The following resource persons served as group conveners and moderators:
Clusters co-opted presenters and recorders, as required, in their consideration of a particular topic. 3. Adoption of the agendaSeminar participants adopted the following agenda: A. Opening of the Seminar and election of officers B. Overview of international norms and standards relating to persons with disabilities C. Parallel working group sessions by Cluster topic
D. Special session on information technologies and persons with disabilities E. Symposium and dialogue on international instruments and equalization of opportunities F. Identification of priorities for action to promote equalization of opportunities G. Adoption of report of findings and recommendations H. Closing of the Seminar 4. DocumentationDocuments of the Seminar and selected background resources are presented in Annex I to the report. 5. ParticipantsParticipants at the Seminar are listed in Annex II to the report. C. Adoption of report of findings and recommendationsThe (draft) report of the Seminar was adopted in plenary on Friday, 17 December 1999, at Hong Kong (SAR). The Seminar officers entrusted the United Nations Secretariat (Division for Social Policy and Development) with the task of technical editing of the draft, which would include incorporating changes and corrections provided ex-post by Seminar participants. [5] Report <http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/disberk0.htm>. [6] Adopted by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific resolution 48/3 of 23 April 1992 < http://www.unescap.org/decade/backgr.htm>. [7] Report < http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/disisea.htm>. [8] Executive summary < http://www.worldenable.net/iaasean/Default.htm>. [9] The “Project implementation and management plan” is presented in appendix 1 to this chapter. [10] WorldEnable (http://www.worldenable.net) - an "Internet accessibility initiative" – is a joint venture of Vision Office Support Services, Ltd (http://www.visionoffice.com) and Associates for International Management Services (http://www.intlmgt.com) which provided advice and expertise in the planning, design and hosting of the Seminar site. |
Copyright (c) 2000-2001 VisionOffice. |
