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About Pacific Disability Forum
The Pacific
Disability Forum is a charitable trust which was formed in July 2004 following
a growing momentum in the Pacific region to recognise the potential of people
with disabilities. Its purpose is to “Promote and facilitate regional
cooperation on disability related concerns for the benefit of people with
disabilities”
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The Vision
An inclusive
Pacific society that is responsive, culture sensitive and gender equitable that
ensures the promotion and protection of the rights of Persons with Disabilities
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The Mission
To improve and maintain the
situations of Persons with disabilities in Pacific Island Countries &
Territories through collaboration with relevant stakeholders and advocacy to
build and strengthen the capacity of member DPOs to respond to issues affecting
them
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Values
In pursuing its vision, PDF seeks to exemplify the following
values:
- we
are innovative and practical
- we
are inclusive and respectful
- we
are independent and trust worthy
- we are committed and reliable
- we are transparent and accountable
- we are united and self determined
- we are passionate and persevered
Overview of PDF
The Pacific
Disability Forum will provide leadership and serve as a regional focal point on
disability issues and support the various National Disabled Persons
Organisations, Donor and Nongovernmental partners in the quest to ensure that
people with disabilities live in.
The Pacific Disability
Forum will begin to turn the tide of people with disabilities being viewed as a
burden rather than people with disabilities being seen as equal participants
and contributors to communities and countries.
The Pacific
Disability Forum will support the establishment and strengthening of National
Disabled Peoples Organisations at country level to better enable them to
promote the rights and defend the dignity of persons with disabilities.
The Pacific Disability Forum was formed after the (ODASC)
Training Seminar in Nadi, Fiji, leaders of persons with disabilities and
participants from the island nations from the Pacific, began to quietly
articulate their desire for an interim committee to spearhead an effort to
unite persons with disabilities in the Pacific under a South Pacific federation
of persons with disabilities.
In 2003, at the Regional Leadership Training
Seminar for women with disabilities held in Suva, Fiji, where a majority of
participants came from the island nations of the Pacific, this sentiment was
again expressed by a number of seminar participants. The Disabled People’s
International (DPI) Oceania Sub region Office which was established in Suva,
Fiji in 2000 to support National Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) in
Pacific Island countries played a pivotal role in organizing these two training
seminars as well as servicing the PDF listserv.
By 2004, at the inaugural PDF meeting in Fiji, the members began
to once again earnestly discuss the possibility of making PDF a formal
organisation and establishing a regional office with a regional officer to
coordinate the development of such a federation in the Pacific. This proposal
was formally included in the draft of its Constitution and a shell plan to be
presented to the AGM at its meeting at the end of 2004. The PDF Council faced
by unexpected funding constraints, mandated priority shifts which, once again,
placed the Development of a new regional office at a much lower priority than
original proposed.
In 2005, further consultations were done at a meeting jointly
organised by Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, UNESCAP and ILO Pacific
Offices, PDF and DPI Oceania. It was at this time that NZAID commissioned two
consultants to review what existed in the area of disability in the Pacific region. As a result, the review presented strong
recommendations that would give the NZAID Pacific Regional Health Programme a
clear, strategic direction for assistance in the area of disability development
in the Pacific region for the next 5 years. It was at this stage that some
confirmation of support funding from NZAID was forthcoming and the dream of
establishing a regional organisation became more interesting. PDF was seen at this point to be well placed
as a partner to NZAID in this noble task.
The establishment of a regional office with requisite resources
to co-ordinate and promote development efforts in the region has increasingly
become a vital step towards securing representation, ensuring participation and
expressing the voice of Pacific persons with disabilities to the governments of
the region, at regional and international fora of the United Nations bodies, as
well as regional and international civil society organisations. Such an office
can orchestrate the organisation, and support the development of a federation
of persons with disabilities in the region. Such a federation, in turn, can
serve as a framework for the dissemination and appropriate application of
information, resources and projects to persons with disabilities of these
island nations. Persons with disabilities in the Pacific, speaking with one
voice through a federation as a regional block, cannot be lightly ignored in
both regional and international forums.
The
objects of the PDF are to within the Pacific region:
- Promote
and advocate for the recognition of the human rights of persons with
disabilities.
- Promote
and advocate for the recognition of the needs and interests of Pacific persons
with disabilities in respect of political, economic, social and cultural
development. - Promote
and advocate for the recognition of the needs and rights of women with
disabilities. - Provide
a democratic multilateral decision-making forum for the resolution of issues
that have a Pacific regional dimension. - Collect
and disseminate information about disability-related concerns in the Pacific
region. - Encourage
and support the development of Pacific disabled persons organisations. - Promote
cooperation and joint activity in respect of disability-related concerns among
Pacific region disabled persons organisations, agencies of the United Nations
in the Asia and Pacific region, Pacific governments, Pacific region national
human rights institutions, intergovernmental bodies, donor and development
agencies and other relevant bodies. - Develop
and publish disability policy and program resources. - Promote
and support research into disability-related concerns in the Pacific region. - Promote,
support and monitor the implementation of the UNESCAP Biwako Millennium
Framework, UN Millennium Development goals and the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities. - Promote,
support and monitor the implementation of the Pacific Plan and the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and all other
intergovernmental agreements and initiatives for the benefit of persons with
disabilities. - Represent
and promote the interests and concerns of the PDF at Pacific regional, Asian
and Pacific regional and international events and decision-making processes.
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