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II. Implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons A. Measures undertaken by the United Nations system 1.United Nations Secretariat B. Cooperation with Governments and
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II. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORLD PROGRAMME OF ACTION CONCERNING DISABLED PERSONS
A. Measures undertaken by the United Nations system
1. United Nations Secretariat
(a) Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development
2. In its capacity as focal point for the United Nations programme on
disabled persons, the Department has directed special attention during
the period under review to furthering implementation of the Standard
Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with
Disabilities, adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 48/96 of
20 December 1993 (see annex), and to promotion and development of
national disability committees and related coordinating bodies, pursuant
to resolution 46/96 of 16 December 1991.
3. To promote and strengthen coordination of national disability
policies and programmes, the Department organized a number of training
seminars with financing from extrabudgetary resources. These included
the regional training seminar for Eastern Europe and the Baltic States
on adapting guidelines for establishment and development of national
coordinating committees on disability or similar bodies (Sinaia,
Romania, 20 24 September 1993), and the regional seminar for Latin
America on national disability programmes (San José, 7 10 March 1994).
4. A major development in furthering implementation of the Standard
Rules has been the designation of Mr. Bengt Lindqvist, former Minister
for Social Affairs (Sweden), as Special Rapporteur for the Standard
Rules. The position is being supported by voluntary contributions. The
Government of Sweden has indicated that it will provide an in kind
contribution; the Government of Japan has indicated that it will provide
an earmarked contribution for activities of the Special Rapporteur; and
Governments are also considering possible support to the Special
Rapporteur.
5. Greater awareness and understanding of the Standard Rules are
being promoted through their publication and distribution by the United
Nations, Member States and the non governmental community. This includes
publication by the United Nations of the full text of the Rules in the
six official languages of the Organization, as well as in English,
French and Spanish Braille. The Department of Public Information issued
a brief information note on the Rules. The Rules have already been
published through other sources in the following languages: Czech,
Finnish, Icelandic, Japanese, Korean and Swedish.
6. The Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development is
directing special attention to finalizing technical reports on project
planning in the disability field and disability legislation.
7. The Manual on Integration of Disability Issues into National Planning
and Development Projects, prepared with a voluntary contribution from
the Government of Finland, is designed to be a source of practical
knowledge and information to assist Governments plan and implement
policies and programmes in the disability field. The manual is scheduled
to be published in 1995; it may also be incorporated in a proposed
update of the Advisory Note on Disability of the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP).
8. The Manual on Disability Legislation in Developing Countries,
prepared with a voluntary contribution from the Government of Sweden, is
based upon expert meetings organized during the period under review: the
consultative expert meeting on national disability legislation for
developing countries in the southern African subregion (Mbabane, 6 8
April 1992), the consultative expert meeting for Asia and Pacific (Kuala
Lumpur, 6 8 December 1993), and the regional seminar on national
disability programmes for Latin America (San José, 7 10 March 1994).
The manual is scheduled to be published during 1995.
9. The Department provides the secretariat for three major international
events occurring during the biennium 1994 1995: the International Year
of the Family (1994), the World Summit for Social Development
(Copenhagen, 6 12 March 1995) and the Fourth World Conference on Women:
action for equality, development and peace (Beijing, 4 15 September
1995). Preparations for each event are characterized by due concern for
disability issues. For instance, regional preparatory meetings organized
prior to the observation in 1994 of the International Year of the Family
included disability among priority issues addressed. The ad hoc
secretariat for the International Year of the Family recently issued an
occasional paper on "Families and disability". The draft
programme of action considered the Preparatory Committee for the World
Summit for Social Development at its second session (New York, 22 August
2 September 1994) directs special attention to disability in connection
with the three priority themes of the Summit, social integration and
employment in particular. The draft platform for action, considered by
the Commission on the Status of Women at its thirty-eighth session (New
York, 7 18 March 1994), acting as preparatory body for the Fourth World
Conference, addresses disability with respect to areas in which gender
and disability issues intersect priority Conference themes.
(b)Statistical Division, Department for Economic and Social Information
and Policy Analysis
10. The Statistical Division of the Secretariat continued work on
development of disability statistics in two areas: design of statistical
methodology and standards for data collection; and production of
statistics and indicators of disability.
11. An expert group meeting on the development of impairment, disability
and handicap statistics will be organized by the Division from 7 to 11
November 1994 at Voorburg, the Netherlands, hosted by the Netherlands
Central Bureau of Statistics. The meeting will review existing
disability data collection methods and standards and prepare a guiding
set of principles for use in census, surveys and registration systems.
The meeting has been planned to coordinate with the next international
meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) on revision of the
International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps,
also to be held in the Netherlands, from 14 to 18 November 1994.
12. The Statistical Division and the North America Collaborating Centre
(National Centre for Health Statistics) jointly organized an
international meeting on the scientific review of applications of the
International Classification (Harbour Town, Maryland, USA, 31 May-3 June
1994).
13. A disability related indicator was developed by the Division and WHO
in connection with preparation of global indicators for the third
monitoring of progress towards health for all, to be carried out at
national level by member States: "number of people identified as
having one of the following types of disabilities: difficulty seeing,
difficulty hearing, difficulty speaking, difficulty moving, difficulty
learning/comprehending/remembering, or other (specify)". The
indicator was published in Implementation of strategies for health for
all by the year 2000; third monitoring of progress common framework. 1/
A similar indicator was developed by the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) and WHO in collaboration with the Division to assess progress
in implementing the objectives of the World Summit for Children; it is
reported in Indicators for monitoring health goals of the World Summit
for Children recommended by WHO and UNICEF for national monitoring,
programme management and international reporting (1993).
14. The Statistical Division continued work on development and practical
use of the United Nations Disability Statistics Database for production
of statistics and indicators. A consultant study was prepared during
1994, entitled "A Human Development Agenda for Disability:
Statistical Considerations". An extract of the findings was
included in the discussion on human security in the UNDP 1994 Human
Development Report. The Division contributed an article on
"Disability Statistics in Studies of Ageing" to the
Demographic Yearbook; special issue on ageing, 2/ that presents age- and
gender specific disability data for 57 countries and discusses
implications for policy formulation and programme planning. This project
was supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). A
"Statistical Chart on World Families", 3/ co financed by the
Trust Fund for International Year of the Family, was compiled by the
Division and includes data on the percentage of people with disabilities
for 87 countries. The Division prepared with WHO a report on health
statistics, the Conference of European Statisticians on the
International Classification and the development of disability
statistics for the Fifth Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)/WHO Joint
Meeting. 4/ The Report of the International Workshop on the Development
and Dissemination of Statistics on Persons with Disabilities, organized
by Statistics Canada and the Division at Ottawa from 13 to 16 October
1992, is available in English and French. The Division has drafted, in
collaboration with WHO, a training manual on development of disability
statistics for the use of programme managers and planners, focusing on
production of national disability statistics through surveys, censuses
and registration systems. The manual is scheduled for publication by the
United Nations in 1994 and has been co financed by the Swedish
International Development Authority.
(c) United Nations Centre for Human Rights
15. The World Conference on Human Rights, held at Vienna from 14 to 25
June 1993, reaffirmed in its Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
that all human rights and fundamental freedoms were universal and thus
unreservedly included people with disabilities. The Commission on Human
Rights and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have
been encouraged to pay due attention to the promotion and protection of
human rights of persons with disabilities. Resolution 1994/27 of the
Commission on Human Rights reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring the
rights of persons with disabilities.
(d) United Nations Development Programme
16. Through its Interregional Project for Disabled People, which focuses
on community based rehabilitation for people with disabilities, UNDP
produced and published the following documents: "Prejudice and
Dignity: an introduction to community based rehabilitation" (1993),
and "OMAR in Rehabilitation: a guide on operations monitoring and
analysis of results" and "Play with your children"
(Africa version, 1994). The project also conducted training seminars and
workshops in India, Finland, and Switzerland in 1994.
17. IMPACT, the International Initiative Against Avoidable Disablement,
a joint initiative of UNDP, UNICEF and WHO, focuses on promotion of
integrated approaches to strengthening the health and development
sectors at the community level to prevent avoidable disabilities and
aims to reduce and, when possible, eliminate causes and incidences of
disabling conditions or accidents. During 1993 the director of the India
IMPACT Foundation was awarded the Department of Public Information Grand
Award in recognition of her contributions to the development and
operational success of "Lifeline Express", which is a joint
public and private sector initiative in using trains to bring needed
medical care, such as immunization, diagnostic services and surgery for
disabling conditions, to rural villages. An IMPACT pilot project in Mali
on eradication of the guinea worm provides an example of the importance
IMPACT attaches to community participation in the implementation of
preventive interventions.
(e) United Nations Children's Fund
18. UNICEF is currently engaged in implementation of its mid term plan
for childhood disability (1994 1997), which focuses on (a) consolidation
of preventive measures such as immunization and the control of micro
nutrient deficiencies; (b) establishing systems to facilitate early
detection of disabilities; and (c) supporting community based
rehabilitation as an integral part of basic services.
19. UNICEF reports that 70 countries, including 56 developing countries,
have included programmes on prevention of disability, early detection
and community based rehabilitation services for children who are
disabled. In addition, the Convention on the Rights of Children, which
in its article 23 refers to rights of children with disabilities, has
been ratified by more than 150 countries.
20. UNICEF has called for a total ban on the production, use,
stockpiling as well as the sale and export of anti personnel land mines,
a major cause of disablement both in times of armed conflict and in
reconstruction efforts.
(f)United Nations Refugee and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East
21. UNRWA has taken a number of initiatives in the field of disability,
including community based services for disabled persons in its area of
operations, through community rehabilitation centres and health
programmes aimed at preventing disabling illness and conditions. UNRWA
reports that poliomyelitis is virtually eradicated among Palestinian
refugee children. UNRWA has set a target for 2 per cent of new staff
recruitment to be drawn from appropriately qualified disabled persons.
In the light of recent political developments, UNRWA intends to direct
special attention to building capacities of the Palestinian people to
plan and manage sustainable services for disabled persons, and to
effective integration of disabled persons, in the educational, social
and economic sectors.
2. Regional commissions of the United Nations
(a) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
22. Several member Governments of ESCAP have contributed to
establishment of a trust fund to promote the Asian and Pacific Decade of
Disabled Persons (1993 2002). The Asia Pacific Inter organizational Task
Force on Disability related Concerns, composed of United Nations
agencies and non governmental organizations concerned with disability,
has expanded its membership and provided support to the implementation
of its "Agenda for Action".
23. Regional action is emphasizing strengthening of self help
organizations of people with disabilities, promotion of non handicapping
environments, facilitating regional cooperation on production of low
cost, high quality technical aids, poverty alleviation among rural
people with disabilities and enactment of disability legislation. To
that end, during the United Nations Decade (1983 1992) ESCAP organized
training workshops on management of self help organizations of people
with disabilities, carried out surveys, prepared technical guidelines on
improving access to the built environment in developing countries of the
ESCAP region and collaborated with non governmental organizations in
convening regional conferences of non governmental organizations to
promote the Asia Pacific Decade. In 1993 ESCAP published a compendium of
reference material on the Decade, "Asian and Pacific Decade of
Disabled Persons, 1993 2002: the starting point".
(b) Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
24. ESCWA is revising the draft regional long term strategy to further
the implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled
Persons, formulated during the substantive session of the 1992 cultural
event for disabled persons in the ESCWA region (Amman, 17 and 18 October
1992).
25. In October 1993, ESCWA co organized, with the University
Rehabilitation Institute at Ljubljana, the International Society for
Prosthetics and Orthotics and the Government of Jordan, a workshop for
key medical and technical personnel in prosthetics and orthotics for the
Western Asia and Eastern Mediterranean region (Amman, 8 15 October
1993).
26. In conjunction with ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation
efforts in the war torn areas of the region, ESCWA designated a
specialist in "barrier free" design to assist efforts in
Lebanon.
27. ESCWA, in collaboration with UNICEF and interested non governmental
organizations, will organize a regional seminar on the role of the
family in integrating disabled women into society (Amman, 16 18 October
1994). The seminar will provide a forum to discuss and assess the nature
and situation of disabled Arab women and their children and the level of
their social integration. The seminar is expected to strengthen the
ESCWA regional inter agency task force on disability, first established
in 1989.
(c) Economic Commission for Europe
28. ECE is compiling a final review publication of its project on
rehabilitation engineering, which is based upon workshops in the United
States of America, Norway and the Czech Republic. The project objective
was to bring together designers, manufacturers, rehabilitation experts
and users to identify and analyse the status of rehabilitation services,
provision of technical aids and assistive technologies, and development
of market potential for rehabilitation. Closer international cooperation
in the field was recommended, especially with Central and Eastern
European countries in transition. The ECE Inland Transport Committee
collected and analysed information provided by member States on measures
adopted to facilitate mobility of disabled persons; and amendments to
the Convention on Road Traffic have been prepared. In the field of human
settlements and housing, ECE has undertaken a project on the status and
conditions of the elderly and of persons with disabilities in the ECE
region.
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