November 10, 2006 PM
Lecture : UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Lectures: Ms. Yoriko Suzuki Principal Deputy Director, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Division, Foreign Policy Bureau,
Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Kim Jeong-ok, Director of Advocacy Center, DPI-Japan
There are over 600 million people with disabilities throughout the world, and many of them live in developing countries. According to the United Nations' statistics, 80% of people with disabilities live the lowest standard of living, because of discrimination in policy, environment, and the negative attitude of society or community. On the other hand, even in so-called developed countries, appropriate consideration is not made toward persons with disabilities, according to the type of disability and characteristics, as well as in all aspects of community life (i.e. acquiring of residence and various services; education; employment; use of facilities, access to structures and transportation; political participation; judicial proceedings, etc.). As a result, there are still many barriers between citizens with disabilities and those without disabilities, and discrimination remains unresolved. (Extract from Mr. Kim's lecture material)
For Above reasons seven participants should know about the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, however most of them haven't heard of it before coming to Japan.
Ms. Suzuki from Ministy of Foreign Affairs commented on the Convention from the Japanese government point of view and Mr. Kim from Japanese NGO point of view. Both of them attended the 8th Session of the Ad Hoc Committee as members of delegation of Japan, which was held in New York between 14 and 25 of August. The Convention itself will be adopted in the sixty-first session of the General Assembly.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc8.htm
Ms. Chihiro Kawamura, committee member who also attended the 8th Session of the Ad Hoc Committee observed the session and we discussed how participants can convince their governments after ratification and how they can change the society.
(Lecture material : Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs [PDF (44KB)] , Mr. Kim Jeong-ok [PDF (104KB)]
