fyi.
----- Original Message -----
From: janjira
To:
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2003 10:33 AMSubject: 2nd regional leadership
training seminar of WWDs ends with positive results (from TNA)
2nd regional leadership training seminar of WWDs ends with positive
results BANGKOK, Apr 26 (TNA) - The Second Leadership Training Seminar
of Women with Disabilites (WWDs) in Asia and the Pacific ended
successfully yesterday, with participants expressing their strong
determination to foster their networking and to continue to work hard
for the better quality of life of WWDs in their countries and in the
region. Participating leaders of WWDs in the region who were interviewed
by TNA reporter on the random basis, including those from India, Vietnam
and Thailand, said that they had gained broader knowledge on human
rights, rights of WWDs, independent living of persons with disabilities
(PWDs), and the development of efforts and movements to improve
conditions and better life of PWDs and WWDs. They said that they had
been enlightened and had been determined to strengthen their networking,
and to seek every mean possible in upgrading the status with better
quality of life of WWDs in their respective countries and in the
region. The seminar, organized by the Disabled Peoples' International
Asia-Pacific (DPI-AP) at the Eastin Lakeside Hotel in Muang Thong Thani
of Nonthaburi province between April 21 and 25, was attended by leaders
of WWDs from 12 countries in the region, including Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan, Papua New
Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Thailand. Its opening
ceremony was honourably presided over by Ms. Pavena Hongsakul,
secretary-general to the Chat Pattana Party, who is also advisor to
Labour Minister and chairperson of the Pavena Hongsakul Foundation for
Children and Women; while its closing ceremony was honourably chaired by
Ms. Surapee Vasinont, director-general of the Office of Children,
Youths, the Disadvantaged Persons with Disabilities, and Older
Persons. During the four-day seminar, the participants also discussed
following issues with concerns, and wanted them to be included and
addressed in the proposed United Nations Convention on Person with
Disabilities. They include poverty, insufficient access to societal
structures and activities of WWDs, insufficient access to such key
sectors as education and employment in the mainstream, double
discrimination against WWDs--as being women and being disabled--, and
violence against children and WWDs. Among its efforts and mandate to
develop and improve the status and quality of life of PWDs, DPI-AP,
which has national disabled persons' organizations from over 150
countries worldwide as its members and whose regional office is in
Thailand, has included issues of WWDs in its policies and movements
since it was incepted in 1981. WWDs also becomes a main target of
development in the Second Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons
2003-2012, declared by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission
in Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), through the implementation of the
Biwako Millennium Framework of Action, which outlines priorities of
issues, action plans, and strategies towards an inclusive, barrier-free
and rights-based society for PWDs in the region. An "inclusive society"
is a society for all; while a "barrier-free society" refers to a society
which is free from institutional, physical, as well as attitudinal,
social, economic, and cultural barriers, and a "rights-based society"
means a society based on human rights of all individuals, where PWDs are
also valued and included in all decision-makings and activities in the
society. The main objective of the new decade of PWDs in the region is
to shift from a charity-based approach to a rights-based approach to
protect the civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights of
PWDs and WWDs. (TNA)--E002
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