COMPILATION OF INTERNATIONAL NORMS
AND STANDARDS RELATING TO DISABILITY
Part III. Regional Human Rights. 5/6   
4. Asia
No particular instruments on disability have been adopted in Asia, but important
workshops have been organised within Asia[58]. In
1999, the Interregional Seminar and Symposium on International Norms and Standards
Relating to Disability was held in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the
People's Republic of China. The Interregional Seminar and Symposium brought
together policy makers, practitioners and representatives of the non-governmental
community to exchange views on international norms and standards relating to disability
and to develop recommendations for the further equalization of opportunities for persons
with disabilities. The Interregional Seminar and Symposium
built upon the meeting of international experts held in December 1998 at Boalt Hall Law
School, University of California at Berkeley. The Interregional Seminar and
Symposium was divided into three clusters. Cluster one focused international
norms and standards relating to disability; Cluster Two focused on capacity building to
promote and monitor the implementation of norms and standards for persons with
disabilities. Cluster three addressed the different approaches to the definition of
disability.
Cluster one acknowledged the importance of international disability rights law in
designing strategies to advance disability rights in the domestic sphere and to interpret
broad treaty obligations relevant to persons with disabilities. Cluster two focused on
importance of training in human rights advocacy among disability rights NGO's. Cluster
Three concentrated the different legal definitions of disability and how these definitions
can serve different purposes. For example, the medical model will be useful in the context
of clinical care, while this model may be inadequate in advancing the civil rights of
persons with disabilities. The Interregional Seminar provided a further
opportunity for experts from fifty countries to exchange ideas on current law
reforms in disability issues.
4.1 Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities (
1993-2002)
In April 1992, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific proclaimed
the decade ( 1993-2002) the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons[59]. This regional decade of disabled persons aimed to
help to promote the human rights of disabled persons in a region which has probably the
largest number of the world's disabled persons. The Proclamation on the Full
Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region
and the Agenda for Action for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons,
1993-2002 contain some of the major topics of the World Programme of Action concerning
Disabled Persons and The Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for
Persons with Disabilities.
58. e.g. the United Nations Workshop for the
Asian-Pacific Region on Human Rights Issues, Jakarta, 26-28 January 1993.
59. UN Doc. A/CONF 157/P C/61/Add.1.
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