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ESCAP and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Aiko Akiyama Social Affairs Officer ESCAP
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has been the regional engine advocating for a rights-based approach for the last 20 years. It is now promoting the implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action (BMF) and its supplement, the Biwako Plus Five, under the second Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (2003-2012). In the past five years, ESCAP has made significant contributions to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) drafting process, particularly through the submission of the Bangkok Draft, a regional draft of the Convention, which was made possible with concerted efforts of representatives of Governments and disabled people's organizations. The Bangkok Draft became one of the foundational documents of the current Convention.
The BMF, Biwako Plus Five and the CRPD all share the same vision of creating an inclusive, barrier-free and rightsbased society and emphasize a paradigm shift from a charity-based to a rights-based approach to disability. Therefore,with the CRPD's entry into force, ESCAP will be able to strengthen its regional efforts towards the creation of inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based societies.
Furthermore, ESCAP will be able to involve more of UN agencies and organizations in the efforts. In December 2007, the Inter-agency Support Group (IASG) for the CRPD was established at New York with an aim to make the UN system-wide commitment to mainstreaming the disability perspective into its operations. ESCAP is one of its members.Capitalizing on the global development, ESCAP will organize a meeting later in September this year for the UN agencies and organizations in the region to promote the disability mainstreaming at the regional level.
The participation of persons with disabilities has been instrumental in creating a meaningful policy dialogue and good practice sharing in many of the ESCAP activities. ESCAP will also continue this practice towards the attainment of the shared vision.
