DPO Meeting, Jakarta 2

On Wednesday, 17 February, the General Election Network on Disability Access (AGENDA) supported its Indonesia-based partner, the Indonesia Disabled People’s Association (Persatuan Penyandang Disabilitas Indonesia, PPDI), to hold a meeting with leaders from the disability community to solicit feedback on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) Regional Action Plan on Disability.

Participants in the 17 February event included representatives from 18 Indonesian disabled people’s organizations (DPOs), who offered their feedback on and inputs to the first draft of the AICHR Regional Action Plan on Disability. Dinna Wisnu, the new Representative of Indonesia to AICHR for the period of 2016-2018, officially opened the event. In her opening remarks, Dinna Wisnu highlighted the importance of mainstreaming the rights of persons with disabilities and ensuring their full and equal participation in all aspects of the ASEAN community. Therefore, she argued, the rights of persons with disabilities must be thoroughly incorporated into the three community pillars of ASEAN Vision 2025. She therefore welcomed participants’ inputs to the draft of the AICHR Regional Action Plan.

The event was a follow up to the December 2015 DPO Interface meeting and the first AICHR Regional Dialogue Meeting held in Bangkok. All inputs from the 17 February DPO meeting will be compiled with the results of similar DPO meetings across ASEAN countries, and will be presented to AICHR for its second Regional Dialogue. The second AICHR Regional Dialogue will take place in June 2016 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.