Osaka Declaration on Women with Disabilities
By Barbara Duncan (bjdnycla@aol.com)
The founding of a new disabled women's network was one of the most energized meetings of many that took place during the Osaka Forum for the Asia Pacific Region, held October 21-23 in Osaka, Japan. It was a highly dedicated group of nearly 50 women who extricated themselves from the opening reception to pore over the minutiae of the proposed constitution to formalize the Regional Network of Women with Disabilities, Asia-Pacific (RNWWD).
The meeting was composed of more than 40 women with various disabilities from 15 countries in the region, supported by at least 10 disabled and non-disabled women from 7 other countries around the world. A core group of women from Asia-Pacific had been meeting informally for the past few years and the Osaka meeting was the culmination of their plans to begin a formal network. Some of the participants were individual activists, while others represented national disabled women's groups. Countries represented from the region included: China, Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Fiji, Malaysia, Korea, Pakistan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. Observers were present from Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Uganda, Brazil, Peru and the USA.
Declaration adopted
Following the by-laws discussions, the group adopted a declaration to be immediately disseminated to the approximately 1000 participants in the Osaka Forum. The declaration states:
"The Asia Pacific region is home to more than 200 million women with disabilities. Their social, educational, economic and political rights have continually been ignored and/or violated by society.
"Being a woman itself has proven to be a disadvantage. But a woman with a disability means being twice disadvantaged.
"The foremost aim of the RNWWD is the emancipation, independence and equalization of opportunities for women with disabilities in the region. This is translated through access, education, employment, leadership, social policy and networking at national, regional and international levels.
"We strongly advocate for the inclusion of issues of women with disabilities and for these to receive utmost priority in program and service development, policy development and legislation, participation in decision making and governance, and resource allocation.
"We commit ourselves to promote an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society for people with disabilities, and in particular for women with disabilities for the coming Asia and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (2003-2012) and beyond."
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