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Reasonable Accommodations for Equal Participation of Everybody in Disaster Mitigation with Special Reference to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Mr. Hiroshi Kawamura
President of Daisy Consortium

Phuket Declaration : January 2007

Tsunami disasters can be prevented through:

  1. sharing of knowledge and best practices on Tsunami and other disasters,
  2. strong commitment and active participation for contribution of all stakeholders including in particular persons with disabilities to eliminate the loss of lives,
  3. local community-based initiatives for disaster preparedness and
  4. infrastructure building including Tsunami early warning system at all levels to disseminate timely disaster warning to all people concerned,
  5. building of disability friendly infrastructure addressing accessibility issues in all phases of disaster management.
  6. In a knowledge-based society, ICT development, which includes assistive technologies and universal design concept, will contribute to the success of disaster preparedness development that will meet the diverse needs of all people including those of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable people including women, children, old people, cultural minorities, tourists, etc. in the community.
  7. Such ICT development should be based on internationally-recognized standards that are open, non-proprietary, and have proven track record of accessibility.

How did we reach the Phuket Declaration?

Presentations on Disasters at WSIS Global Forum

  • The Role of ICT to Prevent Disaster and Disease for All by Hiroshi Kawamura (Geneva 2003)
  • Overview of ongoing ITU initiative for disaster prevention by Houlin Zhao
  • Participation in reinvention of safe and caring in Urakawa Town, a view of psychiatry users group, Bethel's House by Kohei Yamane
  • Accessible ICT for Disaster Preparedness and Warning; Human-centered Design of Standards and Technology for Effective Communication by Markku Hakkinen
  • Preparing persons with autism and those who support them for times of disaster: The past with a look to the future by Stephen Shore

Tunis Agenda

91. We recognize the intrinsic relationship between disaster reduction, sustainable development and the eradication of poverty and that disasters seriously undermine investment in a very short time and remain a major impediment to sustainable development and poverty eradication. We are clear as to the important enabling role of ICTs at the national, regional and international levels including:

  • a) Promoting technical cooperation and enhancing the capacity of countries, particularly developing countries, in utilizing ICT tools for disaster early-warning, management and emergency communications, including dissemination of understandable warnings to those at risk.
  • b) Promoting regional and international cooperation for easy access to and sharing of information for disaster management, and exploring modalities for the easier participation of developing countries.
  • c) Working expeditiously towards the establishment of standards-based monitoring and worldwide early-warning systems linked to national and regional networks and facilitating emergency disaster response all over the world, particularly in high-risk regions.

Tunis commitments

18. We shall strive unremittingly, therefore, to promote universal, ubiquitous, equitable and affordable access to ICTs, including universal design and assistive technologies, for all people, especially those with disabilities, everywhere, to ensure that the benefits are more evenly distributed between and within societies, and to bridge the digital divide in order to create digital opportunities for all and benefit from the potential offered by ICTs for development.

Conclusion of the global forum

Disaster Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities was identified as one of the most crucial issues to be tackled by ICT development so that everybody in the community including persons with disabilities will be able to take part in the disaster preparedness development.

UN Convention on the right of Persons with Disabilities

Article 11 : Situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies
States Parties shall take, in accordance with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.

Article 2 : Definitions
"Reasonable accommodation" means necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;
"Universal design" means the design of products, environments, programs and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design "Universal design" shall not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed.

Re-visiting Phuket Declaration, January 2007

  • sharing of knowledge and best practices on Tsunami and other disasters,
  • strong commitment and active participation for contribution of all stakeholders including in particular persons with disabilities to eliminate the loss of lives,
  • local community-based initiatives for disaster preparedness
  • How to make use of indigenous knowledge in disaster preparedness and recovery : Example : Sea Gypsies in the South of Thailand
    "Some sea gypsies' communities became sedentary in Phuket partly (but not only) due to the attraction of revenues from the tourism industry. Apart from being in themselves a (debatable) tourist attraction, they provide cheap labor (often the cheapest next to Burmese migrant workers). They also use their boats for sea transportation of tourists to the islands of the bay of Chalong and Rawai. On the other hand, some other sea Gypsies communities (moving along the Andaman coast) still have more or less their original livelihoods strategies mostly based on fishing and harvesting seashells. The latter proved to be quite resilient and there are accounts of communities that literally escaped the Tsunami. Thanks to indigenous knowledge. It is important to consider these differences and even take into account and utilize indigenous knowledge when appropriate in the recovery phase."
    (Livelihood Recovery & Environmental Rehabilitation, report of UNDP / World Bank / FAO Joint Tsunami Disaster Assessment Mission 4 - 8 January 2005)

Sharing knowledge on equal basis is key to a successful exchange:

  • Language
  • Communication support: interpretation
  • Format of information
  • Timeliness
  • Mutual respect

Suggestions

  • Infrastructure building including Tsunami early warning system at all levels to disseminate timely disaster warning to all people concerned,
  • Building of disability friendly infrastructure addressing accessibility issues in all phases of disaster management

Self‐help and Self‐decision making is crucial for survival in disaster situation

  • FPIC: Free, Prior and Informed Consent
  • Access to Information for knowledge on
  • Each disaster : earthquake, Tsunami, flood, cyclone, land slide, pandemics, etc.
  • Evacuation plan, route, facility, support, community resources including shelters
  • Information access in the right time and right format taking advantage of ICT
  • Access to evacuation planning process and evacuation exercise

Community based disaster preparedness is the most effective disaster mitigation strategy

Equal and full participation of persons with disabilities in disaster preparedness is the key to prevent loss of lives

Conclusions

  • Persons with disabilities are not just vulnerable but become active partners to build safe community for everybody, when appropriate accommodation to meet specific needs is provided.
  • ICT Assistive technology development should be integrated in universally designed mainstream technology.
  • Web accessibility guidelines and DAISY Standard play crucial role to make ICT accessible.
  • Development of ICT assistive technology in combination with universal design is the right way forward for universal design of disaster preparedness.