Cambodia to Host Disability International Conference in 2023

Posted Oct 20, 2021 15:34 by Rhea Soco
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PHNOM PENH: Cambodia will host the fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Disability Environment for Sustainable Community Development in Phnom Penh. The activity is expected to be conducted in the middle of March 2023. The event is a significant demonstration concerning the well-being and dignity of persons with disabilities in Cambodia through the adoption of the Law on Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2009 National Policy, Social Protection, National Strategic Plan on Disability, and other legal standards under the disability law.

Minister of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, Vong Sauth says that this is a new historical event for Cambodia, especially for persons with disability. He stresses that in the past, the Royal Government as well as the Ministry of Social Affairs have worked hard for the benefit of people with disabilities in Cambodia including rehabilitation, physical fitness, housing provision, and allowance for people with disabilities in the marginalised sector of the society.

Minister Sauth has added that Cambodia will present to the delegations from the countries in Asia-Pacific region the country’s achievements in the field of disability and will organise a visit to the National Center for the Disabled of Cambodia. The centre is currently under construction and scheduled to be completed before 2023.

Secretary of State for Social Affairs and Secretary General of the Disability Action Council, Em Chan Makara will lead a team to inspect the quality of the construction and expedite the construction process of the centre ahead of the conference schedule.

Cambodia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on December 20, 2012, and is a signatory to the implementation of the Decade of Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific in the local and international community to promote the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Asia-Pacific Conference on Disability Environment for Sustainable Community Development was first hosted by Thailand in 2009, followed by Philippines in 2011. The third conference was held in Japan in 2015 and then Mongolia in 2019. The next is the fifth in which Cambodia is preparing to happen in 2023.