Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

The need for such a body has become further intensified since the ratification of the UnitedNations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the effectiveness ofwhich requires that it be enforced through a governing regional body. The creation of aDisability Rights Tribunal for Asia and the Pacific (DRTAP) would be the first necessary stepleading to amelioration of this deprivation, which could also serve as inspiration for a fullregional human rights tribunal in this area of the world, and a way of insuring the infusion oftherapeutic jurisprudential values into the entire legal process. If, however, it were to be created,it is also clear that it would be an empty victory absent available and knowledgeable lawyers torepresent individuals who seek to litigate there.Strategies to establish Disability Rights Tribunal in Asia and Pacific during theNew Decade for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and PacificYoshikazu Ikehara, Tokyo Advocacy Law Office, Tokyo, Japan (yikehar@attglobal.net)UN-ESCAP is going to launch the New Decade for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and Pacificin 2013. The New Decade aims at complete implementation of CRPD among its member states.UN-ESCAP is working out strategies for its purpose. Persons with Disabilities Organizationsurge to include DRTAP into one of goals of the strategies. Some member states seem to beagainst establishing a regional judicial system and others look indifferent to it. But it is no doubtthat DRTAP is necessary in Asia and Pacific to protect and promote disability rights like otherregional human rights courts. The point is how to put theory into practice. We have establishedDisability Rights Information Center in Asia and Pacific and we are planning a training programfor disability rights advocates among Southeast Asian countries, Oceania, Japan and US. Ouradvocates who will be trained will monitor and support an individual client in Asia and Pacific.Their repots to DRICAP will demonstrate insufficiency of a national human rights mechanismand necessity of DRTAP for complete implementation of CRPD in Asia and Pacific.The presenter organized a project to establish DRTAP in 2008 and held several conferences invarious countries to expand its network from 2009 to 2012. It gave a strong impact on the NewDecade. The presenter will show the situation of the New Decade in terms of DRTAP and basicstrategies to establish it during the decade.DRTAP and the Nature of TribunalsPenelope Weller, Monash University (penny.weller@monash.edu)The effort to establish a regional disability rights tribunal makes a practical contribution to thehuman rights effort in a region that lacks a regional human rights body, and in which severalnations have undeveloped human right institutions. The initiative provides a foundation forthinking closely about character of such a tribunal and the scope of its jurisdiction in light of the438