A good start would be for Singapore to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
By Julian Wee
As we come up to the final year of the Enabling Masterplan 2007-2011, this might be a good time to point out an interesting, little-known fact: Singapore, Myanmar and North Korea are the only three countries in all of South, South-east and North-east Asia to not have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD).
Presumably, the Government here has its reasons for not signing the convention - perhaps it is waiting for the Enabling Masterplan to be renewed or its next iteration introduced, before committing to this new international standard. This would be my guess, since the masterplan's criteria for classifying disability appears to lag international standards. The fact that Singapore also seems to be lagging in terms of disability policy is likely not coincidental.
The way disability is viewed internationally has changed quite dramatically in the last few decades. Earlier views - first codified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980 - portrayed disability as essentially a medical condition.
But by 2002, the WHO had recognised in a report that a "decrement in health" (say, illness or ageing) that results in some form of disability is a "universal human experience". The report moved from defining disability as basket of medical conditions, to a description of limitations on daily life.
And now, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has gone further - it includes among its general principles respect for the inherent dignity, autonomy and independence of persons; non-discrimination; full and effective participation in society; equality of opportunity; and the right of children with disabilities to preserve their identities, among other things.
The point to note is that this recognises implicitly that an individual's medical condition need not determine his or her ability to function in society, nor is it grounds for his or her exclusion.
The 2007 Enabling Masterplan, however, seems premised on a different understanding of disability, which it defines as: "Those whose prospects of securing, retaining places and advancing in education and training institutions, employment and recreation as equal members of the community, are substantially reduced as a result of physical, sensory, intellectual and developmental impairments."
The masterplan's definition bears a striking resemblance to the 2002 WHO report in attributing limitations to an individual's ability to function in society to medically-determined "impairments", rather than the way the built-up environment is designed or organised.
The question is what impact this outmoded understanding would have.
Source: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC101228-0000082/We-all-need-a-reason-to-belong
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