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Recognizing the extent
to which the Agenda for Action for the Asian and Pacific
Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993 - 2002, had already been
implemented during the first half of the Decade, and
noting the extent to which further implementation would
be required in order to meet the Decade goal of full
participation and equality of people with disabilities,
the Meeting stressed the importance of a recommitment by
all Governments, concerned United Nations bodies and
agencies and other intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations to the full implementation of the Agenda
for Action.
In the context of the
continued implementation of the Agenda for Action, the
Meeting agreed on the following proposals for
implementation during the second half of the Decade as
guidelines for practical action.
National
Coordination
Governments should:
- Recommit themselves
to promoting national coordination on
disability-related matters through the
establishment and strengthening of national
coordinating committees on disability,
emphasizing the multi-sectoral approach, with a
view to ensuring the participation of all
stake-holders in the planning and implementation
of Decade-related programmes and activities;
- Formulate national
plans of action for the second half of the Decade
and incorporate those sectoral plans in their
overall national development plans and ongoing
programmes. Each national plan for the second
half of the Decade should follow a time-frame,
include an inter-sectoral emphasis with special
consideration for disadvantaged groups and
include a built-in mechanism for monitoring and
evaluation as well as appropriate means of
resource allocation.
- Take into further
consideration, in their implementation of the
Agenda for Action for the Asian and Pacific Decade of
Disabled Persons, the United Nations Standard
Rules on
the Equalization of Opportunities for People with
Disabilities.
Legislation
Governments
should:
- Where not already
enacted, promulgate legislation on a priority
basis to remove the barriers that prevent the
full participation and equality of all persons
with disabilities, with special reference to the
barriers faced by women and children with
disabilities.
- Take action to ensure
that legislation for the removal of barriers to
the full participation and equality of people
with disabilities is effectively implemented and
monitored.
- Establish suitable
mechanisms to examine and identify all
substantive and procedural laws, including
criminal and civil codes as well as policy
provisions, in preparation for (i) amendment or
repeal of provisions that restrict the full
participation of persons with disabilities and
that discriminate against the equalization of
opportunities and (ii) enactment of basic
legislation to protect the rights of people with
disabilities and to eliminate discriminatory
practices, including architectural and
communications barriers.
Information
Governments
should:
- Establish and
maintain information centres and databases on
disability-related concerns.
- Initiate training of
national statistical personnel and, where
appropriate, with support of the Statistical
Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) and
other relevant institutions, on disability
issues, with particular reference to the
generation of reliable disability statistics,
including definitions of disability,
questionnaire design, sampling design, enumerator
training and other data collection activities, as
well as tabulation and presentation of gender-
and age-specific disability data.
- Include questions on
disability issues in all future censuses and
conduct periodic surveys on disability issues. To
that end, census and survey personnel should
receive appropriate training.
- Make appropriate use
of the Internet for the dissemination and
retrieval of data concerning disability.
Public
Awareness
Governments
should:
- Undertake, starting
in 1998, a national public awareness campaign to
commemorate the Mid-point of the Decade and to
publicize the start of the second half of the
Decade, through various means, such as issuing
first-day postal covers and commemorative stamps
and coins promoting the full participation and
equality of persons with disabilities, organizing
art and performing arts festivals, and sports
competitions of people with disabilities, and
organizing national and sub-national mass media
campaigns, including private sector, folk media
and grass-roots activities, noting the
International Day of Disabled Persons, 3
December.
- Promote awareness and
sensitivity among young people towards people
with disabilities through producing information
materials on people with disabilities, involving
prominent personalities, and encouraging young
people to perform volunteer work for people with
disabilities.
Accessibility and
Communication
Governments
should:
- Where they have not
already done so, examine and evaluate their
national situations regarding the accessibility
of people with disabilities to public buildings
and facilities, and public transportation
services, with the involvement of people with
disabilities.
- Take steps to improve
accessibility to all existing public buildings
and facilities, housing and educational
facilities as well as sports and recreational
facilities; promote appropriate action by local
authorities and incorporate barrier-free design
features in all new construction, as well as in
all renovation and expansion.
- Take action to
promote full access to all new mass transport
facilities and systems, including railway
systems; and develop plans to incorporate
barrier-free facilities and user-friendly
features for people with disabilities and older
persons in existing transportation systems on a
step by step basis.
- Support communication
systems for people with disabilities which
improve their access to information, their
mobility and their independence.
Education
Governments
should:
- Provide education for
all children with disabilities which meets their
specific needs, including inclusive education,
through: (i) sensitization of the public to the
educational needs of children with disabilities;
(ii) ensuring improvement and increase in
education opportunities for all children with
disabilities by improving the school enrolment
rate, physical access, necessary teaching
equipment and support staff, early intervention
services and tailored curricula; (iii) training
professional personnel on the special needs of
children with disabilities and winning the
support of regular school administrators and
teachers; and (iv) providing economic and social
support for disabled children from disadvantaged
circumstances to continue their education.
- Provide access to
distance education for people with disabilities
unable to attend conventional schools.
- Promote adult and
non-formal education, including vocational
education, for persons with disabilities in
appropriate environments.
Training
and Employment
Governments
should:
- Improve job placement
opportunities for persons with disabilities by:
(i) strengthening capabilities of government
officials, NGO personnel, the private sector and
family members to assist people with disabilities
in finding employment, (ii) formulating policies
to develop and support job placement programmes
and appropriate vocational training opportunities
for persons with disabilities and (iii)
recognizing the rights of duly qualified disabled
persons to regular employment.
- Identify and develop
new job opportunities for people with
disabilities which are geared towards the present
and future demands of the labour market and
provide them with training in those fields. This
should include special arrangements for people
with extensive disabilities and those who require
a supportive environment.
Prevention
of Causes of Disability
Governments
should:
- Join the
international campaign to ban the production, use
and sale of anti-personnel land mines.
- Develop specific
disability prevention programmes with priorities
as indicated by the data collected in different
countries.
- Develop and
strengthen programmes for early detection of
causes of disability, and for immunization
coverage and eradication of the most prevalent
preventable causes of disability to reduce both
the prevalence and incidence of disabilities.
Rehabilitation
Services
Governments
should:
- Undertake studies and
surveys on national rehabilitation needs, and as
appropriate establish and strengthen
rehabilitation services, especially in rural
areas.
- Place high priority
on the development and implementation of national
community-based rehabilitation (CBR) strategies
and programmes, with emphasis on human resources
development in this area.
- Increase efforts to
involve people with disabilities, their families,
their communities, NGOs and other appropriate
organizations in rehabilitation programmes.
Assistive
Devices
Governments
should:
- Promote the local
production, distribution and maintenance of
low-cost and high-quality assistive devices
through active exchange of information and
contact among users, local manufacturers and
concerned scientific institutes, with
implementation of standardization of components
of and materials for assistive devices.
- Take action to exempt
assistive devices, as well as components,
materials and production, repair and maintenance
equipment from custom duties.
Self-help
Organizations
Governments
should:
- Encourage programmes
in support of disabled persons to focus more
emphatically on rural self-help organizations of
people with disabilities, where there is a
demonstrated need.
- Recognize the value
of promoting self-help organizations of people
with specific disabilities, and further promoting
a cross-disability federation of such self-help
organizations.
- Channel resources, to
the extent possible, directly to self-help
organizations of people with disabilities to
enable them to carry out, on behalf of their
national constituencies, programmes aimed at
independent living of disabled persons.
Regional
Cooperation
ESCAP and other
concerned United Nations bodies and agencies, as
well as other intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations, and the private
sector, should:
- Promote the
implementation of the above-mentioned national
initiatives though all possible means of
technical assistance.
- Assist ESCAP members
and associate members in formulating national
plans of action for the second half of the Decade
for implementation of the Agenda for Action.
- Continue to monitor
the progress of the Asian and Pacific Decade of
Disabled Persons.
- Undertake an in-depth
evaluation of accomplishments at the national and
regional levels and submit it to the Commission
for its consideration at the close of the Decade.
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