The ceremony was attended by Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker Mahn Win Khaing Than, Union Ministers Dr. Win Myat Aye, Nai Thet Lwin and U Kyaw Tin, Deputy Ministers Rear-Admiral Myint Nwe, U Kyaw Myo and U Soe Aung, Hluttaw representatives, diplomats, Permanent Secretaries, representatives of United Nations organizations, NCRPD members, NGOs, INGOs and guests of honors, persons with disabilities, invited guests and officials. The ceremony was opened with a song entitled “serving the country” performed by students from the Kyimyindine School for the Blind.
Following this Vice President U Henry Van Thio addressed the ceremony saying that starting from 3 December 1992, this day has been designated and observed as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by the United Nations (UN). Myanmar had observed the day annually starting from 3 December 1994 and this year, 2018, it is being observed for the 25th time.
Of the world’s population of over seven billion, one tenth is disabled and 80 percent of them are living in developing countries. The difficulties and problems faced by persons with disabilities are not due to their weaknesses but more so for the other constraints of thoughts and views.
According to research findings, disabilities are directly related to a country’s development and there is a connection between disability and poverty. In some countries of the world, only a third of the disabled were employed. The gap in primary school attendance between children with and without disabilities ranges from 10 to 60 per cent.
Starting from the early part of the 21st century, the affairs of the disabled were being observed with new thoughts and from new angles all over the world to come to an understanding. In doing this countries had conducted for the basis of full inclusiveness and increasing protection on equality but there still remains many challenges to be overcome.
The rights of the people with disabilities who had lived a lonely life due to misunderstanding, ignorance, superstition and fear became a special matter for UN organizations and international organizations to look into. That was why the 61st UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) on 13 December 2006.
Myanmar ratified the UNCRPD on 7 December 2011 and as per the convention the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2015), Rules on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2017) were enacted and a Strategy on Development of Persons with Disabilities (2016-2025) was established and approved.
To effectively implement the law, rule and strategy, a national level committee, work committees, states/regions and Nay Pyi Taw Council committees and sub-committees were formed. National committee meetings were held a total of two times to date, once in 2017 and once in 2018. This month, it will be held for the third time. Work committee meetings were held twice in 2018, a meeting to establish a fund for persons with disabilities was also held once in 2018. At those meetings, decisions were made on projects and work processes related to development of the rights of the persons with disabilities and development inclusive of persons with disabilities.
According to the 100-day work program, conventions on children, women and persons with disability were published in Braille for persons with impaired vision. A project for persons with impaired hearing to have access to news and information was also implemented and the outcome is preparing and publishing in hand sign language of conventions on women and persons with disabilities. Translators of hand sign language are being trained and developed and courses for hand sign language assistants were also being conducted continuously.
NCRPD was formed on 14 September 2017 and related committees were formed to effectively setup and implement policies, projects and work processes for long term development of rights of persons with disabilities.
On the implementation part, distribution of introduction to Rules on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, implementing a project for massage system where persons with disabilities had an advantage and arranging vocational training for persons with disabilities to create job opportunities were conducted.
Preparation and publishing of a reference book on usage of words related to disabilities and preparation to publish Rules on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in hand sign language for persons with impaired hearing was also underway. Handbook on Employment of Persons with Disabilities for Employers had been prepared and published to create more job opportunities for persons with disabilities and these books will be distributed at this ceremony. According to the technological age, an Information Communications Technology Training Center for persons with disabilities including persons with mental impairment was opened and courses conducted.
Furthermore establishment of a process to register and categorize disabilities that is vital for persons with disabilities to participate and benefit from relevant courses and development programs provided by the government and other partner organizations is also underway.
In addition to this, cash assistance was provided to a total of 24,984 persons with disabilities, 12,855 in fiscal year 2017-2018 and 12,129 in fiscal year 2018-2019 (6 month period). Awareness work on danger of mine that is connected to disabilities is being conducted and starting from fiscal year 2017-2018, a total of 400 mine affected person, 112 in Kachin State, 16 in Kayah State, 39 in Kayin State, 85 in Shan State, 62 in Bago Region and 86 in Taninthayi Region were provided with cash assistance.
In addition to fulfill the works and duties of the national committee, a Technical Assistance Group is formed with Department for International Development to establish exact work processes for each committee and to conduct according to international norms. In addition to training school based and community based trainings, works programs for education, health, work opportunity, legal, knowledge of disability for persons with disability were also included in the relevant fiscal years.
In conclusion, the Vice President urged all to work towards fulfilling the seven pledges made at the Global Disability Summit.
Next, representative of UN organizations Ms. June Kunugi read the message of the UN Secretary General.
Afterwards, Vice President U Henry Van Thio presented a Handbook on Employment of Persons with Disabilities for Employers to the Permanent Secretary U Myo Aung from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population and also presented awards to winners of IDPD honor award. Next, Amyotha Hluttaw Mahn Win Khaing Than, Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin, Union Minister for Ethnic Affairs Nai Thet Lwin, Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye and representative of UN organizations Ms. June Kunugi presented document of honors to winners of IDPD competitions and international sports competitions.
After the presentation of document of honors, a video record on activities of persons with disabilities were shown followed with a dance performance by students from School for the Deaf (Mandalay).
Finally Myanmar Federation of Persons with Disabilities acting chairman U Thein Lwin delivered a message of appreciation.
Vice President U Henry Van Thio and ceremony attendees then took commemorate group photo and observed the IDPD exhibition.
The theme of the 2018 International Day of Persons with Disability is “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality.”
MNA
Translated by Zaw Min
PHOTO: MNA
Ref; The Global New Light of Myanmar
No comments:
Post a Comment