Asian Ministers Seek Disaster Risk Reduction Inclusive of People with Disabilities6th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Bangkok

The Nippon Foundation

Rehabilitation International, DiDRRN, UN ESCAP

Responding to their call, the ministers adopted the Bangkok Declaration (*1) that called for “giving attention to meaningful participation and positive contribution of at-risk groups such as persons with disabilities,” reflecting the support of the global community for disaster risk reduction that involves people with disabilities. The organizers of the side event, including the Nippon Foundation, introduced to the parties concerned the “Sendai Statement (*2),” spelling out a set of recommendations that was adopted in April at the Asia-Pacific Meeting on Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan.

In light of the fact that, as compared to local population as a whole, about twice as many people with disabilities lost their lives during the earthquake and tsumami that struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, the Sendai Statement (*2) called for taking their viewpoint into consideration at every step of disaster risk reduction, including disaster prevention planning, drilling, and sheltering. Mr. Monthian Buntan, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and former member of the Thai Senate, said at the side event that, “People with disabilities can contribute to disaster risk reduction if they were guaranteed means of transportation, information, and communication.” Ms. Akiko Fukuda, Secretary-General, World Federation of the Deafblind, said that, “With the development of technology, people with disabilities now can do a lot but that’s hardly enough. It is important that people should overcome their isolation by building bonds and caring for each other.”

The Nippon Foundation and its partners said they will call on the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, to be held in March 2015 in Sendai, to include disaster risk reduction conceived from the viewpoint of people with disabilities in a post-2015 global framework for actions to be adopted at the Sendai conference.