Vietnam pledges to make disabled people’s rights real
The pledge
was made during the 2nd conference of the ASEAN Project which was
jointly held by the Asia-Pacific Development Centre on Disability
(APCD) and the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund in Hanoi on August 27.
Addressing the meeting, Minister of Labour,
Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said Vietnam has
worked out a wide-range of positive activities at national and regional
levels to attract disabled people’s involvement and carried out the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for them.
However, with around 6.7 million people with disabilities, equivalent to
7.8 percent of the national population in 2011, the country still
confronts various difficulties and challenges to strengthen their
participation in social integration activities and the offering of
social welfare to them.
The ASEAN Project
aims to improve the living standards and happiness of people with
disabilities in the region and increase their capacity, especially the
ability of vulnerable groups in community-based activities for
integration development.
It is a vital activity
for ASEAN to make its high-ranking leaders’ pledges real in the Bali
Declaration on the enhancement of the role and participation of persons
with disabilities in the ASEAN community and respond to the ASEAN
Decade of Persons with Disability 2011-2020, the Asia-Pacific Decade of
Persons with Disabilities 2013-2022 and the Incheon Strategy to
“Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in the Asia-Pacific
region.
At the conference, Vietnam also
pledged to spare no efforts to ratify the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as soon as
possible.-VNA