Regional Seminars and Meetings

No particular instruments on disability have been adopted in Asia, but important workshops
have been organised within Asia, such as the United Nations Workshop for the Asian-Pacific
Region on Human Rights Issues, Jakarta, 26-28 January 1993. In 1999, the Interregional
Seminar and Symposium on International Norms and Standards Relating to Disability was
held in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The
Interregional Seminar and Symposium brought together policy makers, practitioners and
representatives of the non-governmental community to exchange views on international
norms and standards relating to disability and to develop recommendations for the further
equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities. The Interregional Seminar and
Symposium built upon the meeting of international experts held in December 1998 at Boalt
Hall Law School, University of California at Berkeley. The Interregional Seminar and
Symposium was divided into three clusters. Cluster one focused international norms and
standards relating to disability; Cluster two focused on capacity building to promote and
monitor the implementation of norms and standards for persons with disabilities; Cluster
three addressed the different approaches to the definition of disability.
Cluster one acknowledged the importance of international disability rights law in designing
strategies to advance disability rights in the domestic sphere and to interpret broad treaty
obligations relevant to persons with disabilities. Cluster two focused on importance of
training in human rights advocacy among disability rights NGO's. Cluster Three concentrated
the different legal definitions of disability and how these definitions can serve different
purposes. For example, the medical model will be useful in the context of clinical care, while
this model may be inadequate in advancing the civil rights of persons with disabilities. The
Interregional Seminar provided a further opportunity for experts from fifty countries to
exchange ideas on current law reforms in disability issues.
Regional meetings were also held in relation to the elaboration of a new convention on the
rights of persons with disabilities, in preparation for the second session of the Ad Hoc
Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and
Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (Second Session, New York,
16-27 June 2003). These were theExpert Group Meeting and Seminar on an International
Convention to Protect and Promote the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities in
Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand, 2-4 June 2003), the Arab regional meeting on norms and
standards related to development and the rights of persons with disabilities in Beirut (Beirut,
Republic of Lebanon, 27-29 May 2003), and "Promoting the Rights of People with
Disabilities: Towards a New UN Convention", organised by the Asia Pacific Forum of
National Human Rights Institutions, the British Council and the National Human Rights
Commission of India (New Delhi, India 26-30 May 2003).