Review of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons
As the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002 will be ended in 2002, several prominent figures of the Region are invited to write short articles to review or reflect on the Decade. They include Dr. Joseph Kwok and Mr. William Brohier, Professor Ryosuke Matsui, Dr. Koon Sik Min, Miss Veronica E. L. Mendoza, Mrs. Etsuko Ueno, Mr. Yutaka Takamine and Ms. Penny Price, and Ms. Venus M. Ilagan. Herebelow is a collection of their masterpieces.
William G Brohier
Co-ordinator, Education & Rehabilitation of Persons with Visual Impairment
Christoffel-Blindenmission (CBM International) Interdisciplinary Advisory Committee
Past President, International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI)
This is a joint contribution on how the final review of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002 should be conducted, and for what and whose purposes.
The purpose of this joint contribution is actually NOT to review the Decade, but rather to identify the perspectives and approaches, as well as the foci, for the Review Report that is going to be compiled by governments and country NGOs. The guidelines presented here could also simply be to alert politicians/top civil servants/heads of country NGOs to what they should AVOID when collating information for the review exercise and writing up the Report.
Who should take part in the review: GOs and NGOs concerned with disability, civil society, and significant community groups, especially persons with disabilities.
Who to coordinate in-country review process: UNDP country representative, together with a national review committee, the compositions of which should ensure objectivity.
What conceptual frameworks to use: Three basic conceptual frameworks, namely, human rights, equalization of opportunities, and empowerment of disabled people.
What areas to be reviewed: Broad areas of progress and specific achievements, significant areas requiring further actions, changes concerning the status of disabled people, changes of government and community perspectives.
What issues to be included: Reviewing disability issues as generic issues in social and economic development, and inclusion in all aspects of community life.
What measurement tools to be used:
Magnitude of need, services to disabled people and numbers served by main disability groupings. The 12 Policy areas and 107 revised and adopted Targets of the Agenda for Action of the Decade as an assessment tool with a scale rating of: 0, 1, 2 and 3, plus narrative descriptions for each scale rating as anchoring points to facilitate comparison.
How to follow up: problems identified be given specific time schedule for action, to be monitored by national and regional mechanisms.
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Ryosuke Matsui
Vice President,
RI Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific
- A review of 107 targets for the implementation of the Agenda for Action for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons should be carried out in each country/area, alongside with that of the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities as those instruments are interrelated to achieve the full participation and equality of people with disabilities in respective country/area in the region.
- For the purpose of such an endeavor, a common review format should be developed for the use of international comparative studies/research.
- To ensure the objectivity of such a review, a national review committee should be organized in each country/area, of which membership consist of the representatives of governmental organizations, organizations for/of people with disabilities as well as third parties are needed.
- Those problems identified through such a review in each country/area should be tackled with timetable for their solution to achieve the full participation and equality of people with disabilities.
- A national mechanism should be established to monitor the progress of solving those problems.
- A regional support mechanism should also be established to assist each country/area in the region to deal with those problems.
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Koon Sik Min
President, Sam Yook Rehabilitation Center & Hospital, Seoul
Korea
The year 2002 marks the final year of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons. There have been the annual campaigns in the Asian and Pacific countries to promote and implement the agenda for action of the Asian and Pacific Decade. The governments (GOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) including people with disabilities themselves have been working hard to accomplish the cause of the Decade. Now is the time to review the past ten years of efforts by them guided by UN ESCAP, which planned and got endorsement from the countries of this region.
There are twelve principle agendas and the subsequent goals and recommendations to be fulfilled. In order to review it effectively, it may be important to design the methods and formats of reviewing process for GOs as well as NGOs for their meaningful and productive outcomes. There are different areas of agendas and targets for the variety of needs and demands applicable to individual, local, national, and regional diversity. Thus, it would be important to focus on the attention along with other aspects to review about. To understand the attention for policy making and implementation is essential to evaluate the satisfactory outcomes, fulfilling the needs of individual, local, national, and regional diversity. The question of who or which would become the actual beneficiary from this Decade if any is very important for the probably never ending pursuit of goals.
In reviewing the outcomes of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons and the agenda for action including the goals and recommendations, the quest of proper attention for those have been formulated and implemented for persons with disabilities would be an important issue among others. Also who should be able to enjoy the better quality of life because of the Decade is another area worthy of investigation. It may help make another endeavor possible to be an ending process for the better future once and for all if feasible.
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In reviewing the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, I consider the following should be the priority issues/questions/procedures, etc. to which decision making bodies, in both the governmental and non-governmental sectors, need to pay attention to:
- Are disabled people less vulnerable to abuse and exploitation? With the 50th year celebration of the Declaration of Human Rights, it is important to look at the contribution of the Decade celebration towards ensuring that disabled persons are in less precarious existence that they were 10 years ago.
We are only to browse newspapers/dailies to see numerous incidences of violations: when disabled people are paid less than their peer workers, when an intellectually disabled adolescent is put to jail, when deaf persons are not allowed to testify in court, when disabled children are used by crime syndicates for begging and many more similar stories.
- Are disabled people more self-determined? The by-word among development-orientated agencies and workers for more than a decade now is "empowerment". And non-profit organisations working in the disability field is no exception.
Have all the slogans shouting for empowerment made any dent in the society? Are disabled people more participative in decision-making? Do they have more and better representation in the various levels of the society? Have they created a "critical mass" that can influence government, politicians, media, consumerism, business, etc.?
- Are governments/states in the region committed to inclusion, not only in education, but also in all aspects of community life?
Why then is there a movement to proclaim for another decade with the possible theme "Barrier-free society for all?" Just what have we been campaigning for the past 10 years if not for a barrier-free society. We can't seem to take off from there because of lack of will and determination to carry on all the declarations and policies we've formulated. Perhaps we have also been too ambitious in our aims and did not put in place adequate indicators of success.
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Etsuko Ueno
Secretary General, RNN
Hon. Secretary, RI Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific
This is my personal opinion to see the regional cooperation concerning the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons 1993-2002. In the previous UN ESCAP evaluation meetings to review the achievement of the A/P Decade, various issues to be tackled have been identified. Most of those issues require joint efforts among various sectors including different relevant government agencies, NGOs, organizations of persons with disabilities for the implementation.
Existing NGOs of the region have made efforts to promote the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons through organization of Campaign Conferences in the region and promotion of awareness towards the A/P Decade.
However, the mechanism of such regional cooperation is still weak. The UN ESCAP has made desperate efforts to continue the TWGDC (Thematic Working Group on Disability Concern), which meets twice a year with participation of governments, UN agencies and regional NGOs. Thanks to the development of website that makes information exchange become active.
Also RNN (Regional NGO Network for the Promotion of Persons with Disabilities) has identified national NGOs as well as regional NGOs during the Decade.
But I wonder if those key NGOs which have participated in the regional arena have reached grassroots level organizations/groups of/for persons with disabilities. We need a firm mechanism for such small groups/organizations in the community to participate in the important dialogue regarding the regional activities. To improve the current situation, the local, national and regional NGOs should be more strengthened.
Still now I have heard from local organizations of persons with disabilities in this region that regional promotional activities for the Decade have not been known. I do not think it is too late to cope with those voices that were identified just recently. These needs will be a strong impetus to start activities jointly with local, national and regional NGOs within a new framework after the Decade. More actions can be taken by promoting and strengthening regional cooperation that will ensure the achievement of full participation and equality of persons with disabilities in this region.
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Penny Price
Honorary Associate, Lecturer, Division of Early Childhood Studies and Education
MacQuarie University, Sydney
Australia
- The most critical element of the review process is that all 'stakeholders' have the opportunity to participate in it. This must include people with disabilities, their families and organizations of people with disabilities. It will include government officials and those involved in policy formulation and program implementation. It should include those involved in service provision, with particular emphasis on non-governmental organizations. It should also include members of civil society who are not directly involved in disability, community leaders and representatives of significant community groups, representing people at all ages and stages of their lives.
- The process is important and may require two stages. In order to achieve full cooperation, collaboration and representation of all significant groups it may be necessary or advisable to request the UNDP to co-ordinate the in-country review process. An initial meeting would determine strategy and time frame, and a second meeting would present a draft report. Facilitation of the review process by UNDP would provide some uniformity in process across ESCAP member countries and territories, and would help ensure that a fully collaborative approach was taken.
- The review should address broad areas of progress, as well as specific achievements. It should also identify the most significant areas for action to achieve further progress. It should provide a clear picture of how the situation of and for people with disabilities has changed during the ten years of the Decade, how the perspective of government and the community has changed with regard to issues concerning people with disabilities, and to what extent disability issues are considered within the context of generic development issues. The review should reflect the situation concerning particular issues that are significant and relevant for people with disabilities at all stages of the life span, from early childhood, through childhood, youth, young adult, mature adult, and older citizen.
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Venus M. Ilagan
Chairperson, DPI Asia-Pacific Region
It is widely recognized that some modest gains have been achieved in the effort to create awareness on the situation of persons with disabilities in the Asia Pacific region, and the need to address issues affecting their general well-being, during the close to ten-year observance of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002.
There has been some notable progress particularly in the areas of national coordination, legislation, self-help organizations, rehabilitation and the like. However, despite the modest achievements, the sector of persons with disabilities remains the single largest least-served and most discriminated sector in almost all states in the region - both in the developed and developing countries.
The protestations of governments of addressing the issues and concerns of their disabled citizens have remained good only on paper and the media. Words were just words, unmatched by deed and the appropriation of resources to keep things moving. The majority of the region's disabled population continues to live under deplorable conditions - deprived of access to education and training, employment and other services.
In most countries of the region, politicians still perceive disabled persons as a minority group who do not get their acts together, who are not sure of what they want, and who are not able to deliver the votes during elections thus, do not merit attention and allocation of funds. Disability remains the lowest in most government's priorities - seen as "a minor issue that can be relegared to the sidelines in favor of other more urgent and more worthy issues, which deserve to be addressed."
Many disabled persons are multiple handicapped by social, psychological, cultural and physical conditions which constitute the barriers to their freedom of movement and full participation in their communities and societies.
Government, service providers and civil society organizations must stop addressing the needs of disabled persons on a piece meal basis. They must stop looking at disability as a mere medical or social issue because disability is a much more encompassing human rights issue.
While it is widely recognized that some policy reforms have been achieved during the last ten years in a number of countries particularly in Asia, majority of countries in the south Pacific sub-region, still do not have legislation to support non-discrimination and the rights of disabled persons. Disabled persons continue to face daily violations of their basic human rights.
The World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities have very minimal impact and have miserably failed to morally persuade most governments in the region to give more impetus and attention to the pressing need to address the issues and concerns of disabled persons.
With the Asian and Pacific Decade fast coming to a close, it is important to ensure continuity of the initial awareness created and to build on whatever modest gains we had in the region, to continue to imbibe awareness on governments in the region, on their moral responsibility to treat disability not as a special issue but one which concerns human - the human rights of their citizens with disabilities.
Asia & Pacific Journal on Disability, Vol. 4, No. 2, December 2001, pp 20-27