Regional

On August 2013, ASEAN leaders adopted the Bali Declaration on the Enhancement of the Role and Participation of the Persons with Disabilities in ASEAN Community and Mobilisation Framework of the ASEAN Decade of Persons with Disabilities. As the names suggest, the declaration and the framework is to affirm the potential contribution of persons with disabilities and their important roles and participation in ASEAN effort of achieving inclusive community. It also marked ASEAN acknowledgement towards the cross-cutting aspect of disability rights across its three pillars (political-security, economic, and socio-cultural) and reaffirmed ASEAN commitment to provide equal opportunities for all of its people as well as emphasized the importance of mainstreaming disabilities in all ASEAN development initiatives. In line with international human rights instrument, especially the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the mobilisation framework promoted fifteen development areas prioritized for persons with disabilities ranging from the right to justice, political participation, healthcare, employment, accessibility, and live independently. The framework also put an emphasis on the rights of children, women, and older persons with disabilities and acknowledged the extensive vulnerability of these groups in those areas.

After its creation in 2009, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), an overarching human rights body of ASEAN, began drafting the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) to materialize ASEAN commitments to human rights. The declaration was then adopted by ASEAN leaders on 18 November 2012 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Declaration recognizes the fundamental rights of vulnerable and marginalized groups, including women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, as an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of human rights. It also promotes equal rights for all ASEAN people to political, economic, and social as well as cultural opportunities including the right to vote, the right to employment and trade, the right to live independently, and the right to education.

In December 2018, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launched a new plan to integrate human rights of persons with disabilities into ASEAN community framework. It builds on the region’s commitments to create a barrier-free community. The Masterplan translates principles from global human rights documents such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into 76 action points aligned with the ASEAN Community’s development blueprints. The Masterplan which serves as an overlay to integrate disability rights into the ASEAN Vision 2025’s development blueprints provides guidance for ASEAN pillars (political security, economic, and socio-cultural) and sectoral bodies to ensure that persons with disabilities are included and mainstreamed across the pillars. The Masterplan identifies a critical role for disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) in the implementation of the regional policy document. DPOs can provide expertise on disability rights, guidance on engaging the disability community, and support to collect data to demonstrate Masterplan progress.