Course on accessible and inclusive ICTs for persons with disabilities 16 March, 2018 National and International Commitments of Nepal towards rights of Persons With Disabilities Presented by Birendra Raj Pokharel (PhD) ADRAD

Nepal Map

Background of Disability Rights Movement in Nepal Celebration of International Year of Persons With Disability in 1981 commencement of "Disabled Protection and Welfare Act 1982” first peoples’ movement in 1991 allowed PWDs to begin establishing DPOs MWCSW established in 1995 as a result of lobbying of Civil rights movement , Nepal government has established Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) in 1995 policies and plans for the development of PWDs

Situational Overview of PWDs Categorised Ten types of disability, 1.94 to 8.3 percentage of prevalence rate, 40 % literacy rate among PWDs Less than 2% PWDs have employment, Meaningful Inclusion is still not materialized. Ratification of CRPD and its Optional Protocol

Legislations addressing PWDs Civil Rights act 2012 (BS) Country Code act (Dewani Samhita 2073) Education act 2028 (9th Amendment 2073) & Rule Medicine act 2035 (BS) Children act 2048 (BS) Local self governance act 2055 (BS) Income tax act 2058 (BS)

Disability Specific Legislation DPWA 2039 and Amendment 2074 Inclusive Educational Policy 2072, National Policy and Plan of Action on Disability 2006 Communication and Physical Accessibility Guideline 2012 CBR directives, Disability ID card directives

Key Highlight of Act of Rights of PWDs Human rights aspects of Disability Education, Health, Rehabilitation training & job opportunity Subsidy in income taxes, customs, transportations... Specific provisions for Women with disabilities, Promotion of accessibility: Accessible ICT

Constitutional Provisions in 2015 18.3 Right to Equality: 29. Right against Untouchability and Discrimination: 31. Right relating to Education: 39. Rights of the child: 42. Right to Social Justice: 43. Right to Social Security: 51. Directive principles of the State: (Disability friendly transportation)

Constitutional Provisions… 84. Constitution of House of Representatives: 86. Constitution of National Assembly 176. Constitution of state assembly: 258. National Inclusive Commission

International Commitments CRPD and Optional Protocol ratification 27 December, 2009 Deposited (10 May, 2010) Review of state report 19-20 February, 2018 In Geneva by CRPD committee Incheon Strategy for make the rights real Asia-pacific framework of action (2013-2022)

Commitments on Other Human Rights Instruments Universal Declaration of Human Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights The Convention on the Rights of the Child The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ILO Provisions on the Rights of the Migrant Worker

Government support for DPOs: the DRF as a Government agency, work by the charitable perspective, Production of assistive devices, vocational training and scholarship to CWDS. The Government provides some nominal grant for supporting National DPOs and SHOs Activities of awareness raising, disability prevention and control, networking and capacity building. The MWCSW also supports few local level SHOs Allocated budget for rehabilitation services in some district are very thinly spread. The SWC supports few SHOs working in rural community with a tokenistic grant for the skill development Ministry of Local Development allocates budget in the Villages for development of persons with disabilities.

Cooperation of International Disability Specific Organisations There are several International agencies working in the field of disability in Nepal. They are: Handicap International DPOD Denmark, FFO Norway Abilis Foundation Finland, SHIA Sweden, (My Rights) CBM, Germany, NABP, Norway

InternationalDevelopment Agencies 26 out of 97 INGOs registered with SWC working in disability Some INGOs follow twin-track approach They adopt the disability as cross-cutting theme of the development. DAISY Consortium, ABC, WIPO are working for Accessible ICT

Monitoring Mechanism in Nepal in Disability Rights The SWC has provision of monitoring the International Support The INGOS have their own mechanism but focus on the output of the project, DPOs have monitoring system within the project purpose, The need of comprehensive monitoring mechanism realized necessary, Support the CRPD implementation, monitoring, Reporting and complain mechanism, DRPI Disability rights monitoring conducted by NFDN applying Tools of York University

Measures to be taken for promoting Accessible ICT Research for The development of accessible ICT, Establishment of online library system to be established, Development and adoption of I C T usable both in urban and rural areas The Ratification of Marrakesh treaty is essential for copy rights exception, Formulate National implementation plan, Adoption of Mainstream publishing tools such as DAISY and E-pub, Promoting Inclusive Education through adoption of accessible ICT from school level. Achievement of disability indicators of SDG particularly Goal 4.

Thank you for your attention