EAC CONFERENCE ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES SET FOR 19-20 JUNE IN NAIROBI,KENYA

 

East African Community

East African Community Secretariat, Arusha, Tanzania, 16  June 2014: A Regional Conference on Persons with Disabilities themed  Empowerment: The disability concern in the EAC regional Integration Agenda is  slated for 19-20 June 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Conference will bring together a selection of persons with disabilities, representatives of people with disabilities, policy makers from the EAC region, Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and officials from the EAC Secretariat. 

The overall objective of the conference is to ensure that disability concerns are mainstreamed in laws and policies at both the national and regional level. In addition, the conference will review progress made by the EAC Partner States in the attainment of Millennium Development Goals in relation to People with disability" and their participation the Post 2015 agenda. 

The conference will be addressed by key EAC policy makers as well as renowned personalities regarding the main theme “Empowerment: the Disability Concern”. In addition presentations on measures undertaken by the EAC Partner States towards empowering the disability concern will be made by each Partner State.

 Some of the issues  expected  as outputs of the PWDS Conference include resolutions and recommendations that will guide mainstreaming of disability concern in National and Regional Laws and Policies; increased awareness on the rights of PWDs among all stakeholders as well as the development of an East African Declaration on Disability mainstreaming. 

According to the tentative programme released by the EAC Secretariat, the conference will be attended by Technical Experts from the relevant Ministries responsible for Persons with Disabilities, EAC Affairs, Labour as well as  Technical Experts representing Umbrella Trade Union and National Employer Association/Federation.

 Others include representatives of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities, Persons with Disabilities (Representing categories of PWDs),Interpreter/Sign Language Experts, Aides to the PWDs, Experts (Equal Opportunities) drawn from the office of the Ombudsma and Members of the National Parliaments of the EAC Partner States.

 All the EAC Partners states have policy measures that are put in place to mainstream the disability concern at both the national and regional level, the EAC and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), both recognize the need to empower Persons with Disabilities. 

This is also in line with the Post 2015 UN Agenda on Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues where the main priority areas include prioritizing of the special conditions and needs of indigenous women, children, youths and indigenous persons with disabilities.

 The interests of the PWDS have also been taken into consideration:  national, Regional and International level by the International Disability Alliance (IDA) which plays an important role together with Inclusion International to advance the human rights of persons with Disabilities: - 

-          There are one billion persons with disabilities worldwide, 80% of whom live in developing countries

-          A number of high-level commitments have been made, both at the global and regional levels, to promote equality and inclusion of persons with disabilities in development, and recognition of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) as both a human rights and development instrument

 It is for this reason that the EAC Conference on Persons with Disabilities has been organized with a definitive purpose to determine how best the current provisions of the EAC Treaty can be used as a basis for developing a comprehensive regional policy governing persons with disabilities as well as proposing the adoption of a legally binding protocol or enactment of a regional law.

The second regional  conference on persons with disabilities builds on the first EAC conference that was held from 19-20 February  2010, at the Sheraton Hotel, Kampala, Uganda, whose theme was “Towards a policy and law to address challenges facing persons with disabilities in the EAC region.