MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
McMullan
Today I depart Australia for the Cook Islands to attend the inaugural Pacific Islands Forum Disability Ministers meeting from 21-23 October.
Forum Leaders noted in August that the region needs to pay more attention to people with disability. This meeting will explore ways to better work together within our development partnerships to ensure people with disability are included socially and economically in the Pacific.
More than 500 million people in developing countries have a disability, including more than 800,000 in the Pacific. The United Nations estimates that 98 per cent of children with disability are denied educational opportunities and that disability is a contributing factor to 20 per cent of incidences of extreme poverty worldwide
People with disability are among the poorest and most vulnerable to social and economic exclusion in the world.
We need to ensure better life opportunities for people with disability and reduce the barriers that prevent their active and equal participation in society.
This week's meeting is a historic occasion for the Pacific and particularly for Pacific Islanders with disability.
Ministers will aim to endorse a regional strategy on disability and will partner with representatives from Pacific-based Disabled Peoples' Organisations, which are run by and for people with disability.
The United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities mandates the organisations to provide advice to their governments and the international community on increasing access and participation by people with disability in all aspects of life and reducing barriers to inclusion. Australia has ratified the convention and its optional protocol.
Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands Forum countries will work in partnership to strengthen the capacity of these organisations across the Pacific to be effective advocates and leaders on issues that affect the lives of people with disability locally, nationally and internationally.
This is an important step to greater inclusion of the needs and rights of people with disability in Pacific development.
I will provide a keynote address at the meeting.