Casper Joseph Fa’asala, who is the current President of the People with Disabilities in the Solomon Islands and also Advocator for Women in Leadership in the country, holding the position of Women in Leadership Desk Officer with the Solomon Islands National Council of Women has been added additional responsibilities as the new Co-Vice chairperson to the Asia-Pacific Region to the Disability People’s International Movement of the World Assembly.
Following the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference which was held on Sunday this week at the Pullman Hotel International in New Delhi, India, Casper was unanimously elected to the position. The Chairperson on the Executive Committee was also been elected from the Pacific Region which resulted in the election of Mr. Trevor Gerrard from Australia now heading the Regional Committee for Asia-Pacific. This is a new shift from the past as previously these positions were dominantly held by Asia representatives since the interception of the Regional Bodies.
This means that Casper will be called to attend meetings of the Asia-Pacific Regional Conferences when called for as well as attending to Executive Meetings of the Asia-Pacific Executive Committee Meetings.
The 9th meeting, which was held from 11th – 13th April 2016, was structured first to hold Sub-Regional Forums of the different Members to the World Assembly from as far as the Latin America, Northern America and the Carribbean, South and North Africa, the Commonwealth Countries from Russia and Asia and the Pacific.
The second part of the assembly was on Leadership understanding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the role of Disability organizations to working with their Governments refining the indicators to suit national conditions with expected enabling mechanisms to implementing the SDGs and the 2030 agendas.
The third part of the World Assembly was to formalise elections of a new Executive Council of the World Assembly and agreeing on the way forward for the Council.
Sixty-seven countries participated in the World Assembly which concluded in the evening of Wednesday and on the overall Solomon Islands has achieved a lot through attending this World Assembly meetings, creating new partnerships and providing information from Solomon Islands on some of our good programmes and practices.
The Disabled People’s International (DPI), is the world’s first global cross-disability disabled people’s organization. DPI is activist oriented, and from its inception spoken the language of rights approach based on the United Nations Human Rights Declaration.
Meanwhile, the Indian Prime Minister said he believe in the principles of inclusion and interrogation.
Honourable Narendra Modi, M.P. said in his welcome message to global representatives from Regional and National Disability Organisations that “India beleieves in the principles of Inclusion and Integration” This he said “stems from the Indian philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – which means we are in the whole world family – a philosophy that transcends all life forms and relationships, including our environment”.
Disability has been recognised as an international issue. The cost of exclusion of people with disabilities from the workplace he said, is estimated by the World Bank to be around 3-7 percent of a country’s GDP. It is therefore, imperative that as the world advances to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and in particular eradication of extreme poverty, people with disabilities are included in this journey.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his message to the participants said his Government is fully committed to the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for achieving empowerment and inclusion of persons with disabilities. His Government in his last two years in office, he said have already taken several steps to ensure that the demographic dividend of people with disabilities is adequately tapped in nation-building. These includes initiatives such as Accessible Indian Campaign aiming to make the built environment inclusive for people with disabilities.
The 9th General Assembly was attended by over 100 participants representing 67 countries around the World. Representing Solomon Islands in the Disabled Peoples International 9th World Assembly is the President for People with Disabilities Solomon Islands, Casper Fa’asala.
Mr. Fa’asala who will return over the weekend, said that there are many good practices from countries around theworld that we can learn from around the areas of disability policy development, different cultural dances by persons with disabilities, the use of accessible technology and programmes suitable for diability mobility and employment. Solomon Islands is amongst other countries in the Pacific and the World that has yet to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, despite signing in 2008 and the protocol in 2009.