Pacific Magazine > Daily News

“Disability Rights Are Human Rights”

Thursday: November 22, 2007

(RRRT)

 People with disabilities are not second class citizens and have rights just like everybody else, insists the Pacific's regional group on disability.

Speaking at a regional workshop on disability rights, Pacific Disability Forum (PDF) Chief Executive Officer Setareki Macanawai said people with disabilities had human rights just like other citizens, and must be given opportunities to learn and enjoy such rights. 

"The fact that we are born and/or live with various types of disabilities does not make us inferior or second-class citizens. First and foremost, we are human beings first and our disabilities secondary to that," Macanawai said.

The two-week Pacific Regional Training on Developing Advocates for Disability Rights, jointly organised by PDF and the Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) of the United Nations Development Programme's Pacific Centre (UNDP-PC) concludes this Friday (23 November). Media personnel are invited to attend the closing at 3pm at the training room of the Tokatoka Hotel, Nadi, Fiji.

The regional workshop brings together advocates from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. 

RRT Training Coordinator Gina Houng Lee said yesterday participants at the workshop had committed to push for their home countries to sign up to, or ratify, the recently adopted Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, drawing on the agreed to slogan: "Disability rights are human rights".

"One component of the workshop was to come up with a slogan to promote and seek ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Participants brainstormed and collectively agreed on the slogan 'Disability rights are human rights'," she said.

"For this particular slogan there was recognition that the slogan was similar to the women's movement however the group said it would be strategic to build an alliance and learn lessons from the women's movement."

Vanuatu is the first Pacific Island country to so far ratify the convention. Ratification is a key component of the Regional Strategy on Disability being developed by Pacific Island Forum Secretariat, UNESCAP, RRRT and PDF. As of 20 October this year, 118 countries have signed the Convention, 66 have signed the Optional Protocol. Seven countries have ratified the Convention and 3 countries have ratified the Optional Protocol.

The workshop aims to build on the advocacy skills of those people already working on disability issues in their home countries, while drawing on human rights approaches, frameworks and laws as part of their strategy on addressing issues facing people with disabilities. Issues raised have included access to public buildings, inclusion of people with disabilities in the education sector and support for a national disability policy.

Macanawai said the Pacific Disability Forum, as a regional organisation of and for persons with disabilities, was keen to build the capacity of disabled persons organisations in the region to actively engage in human rights education and advocacy, especially on behalf of persons with disabilities in their respective countries. 

As an emerging social issue in Pacific Island countries in recent years, disability has seen itself in the agenda of Pacific Island Forum leaders, the Pacific Plan, Asia/Pacific regional initiatives, and more recently, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.