According to the sensus in 2015, it showed that the total population in Cambodia is 15,578,000 people. According UNESCAP SDD to the 2015 nearly 2.1% of the country’s population is persons with disabilities, thus there are an estimated minimum of 301,629 people with disabilities living in Cambodia.
It is estimated that a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. Another serious problem is road safety: there has been a 10% increase in road accident mortality since 2005. The lack of a well-functioning and well-funded public health care system means that international organizations remain primarily responsible for the disability & rehabilitation sectors.
In December 2012, Cambodia ratified the CRPD. However, it is widely recognized that on-going external financial and technical support is needed to fully implement the CRPD and other legislative and policy frameworks relevant to persons with disabilities
and to build the capacities necessary to adequately address the rights and needs of women, girls, boys and men with disabilities in Cambodia.
Interms of national law sand policies, the following laws, cabinet resolutions, regulations and policies pertaining to persons with disabilities are the most important.
• The constitution of 1993, amended in 1999, recognises fundamental human rights for all citizens.
• The Lawon the Protection and the Promotion of the Rights of People with Disabilities of 2009 out lines the ambition sof the government and provide salegal framework for the functioning of the Disability Action Council (DAC) and for the National Acton Plan.
• A National Plan of Action for Persons with Disabilities, including landmine/ERW Survivors (NPA) was also finalised in 2009. To support coordination and implementation of theNPA, a National Disability Coordination
Committee (NDCC) was established, comprising largely the same membership as the DAC.
• A number of Decrees were adopted in 2010-2013 for example: Sub-Decrees on the establishment and functioning of Disability Action Council (DAC). Sub-Decreeon Organisation and Functioning of the Persons with
Disabilities Foundation; Sub- Decree on Employment Quota System for persons with disabilities; Sub-Decree on disability pension for poor persons with disabilities and the inter-ministerial Prakas (MoSVYandMoH) on the
Classification of Disability.
• National Education Law (2008) aims at promoting life long education as a means of contributing to personal development and society as a whole. In addition, it recognises the fundamental human rightsof students with
disabilities on an equal basis with other students.
• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Cambodia signed the Convention and Optional Protocol on 1/10/2007.
The organization has been present in Lao PDR since 1996 and has been engaged in programs that focus on the prevention of disability, rehabilitation services at the institutional and community level, inclusive education (IE), awareness of disability issues, UXO clearance and education, UXO victim assistance, road safety and advocacy for People with Disabilities (PWDs).Around 25 percent of villages in Laos are contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXOs), mainly from US bombing missions between 1964 and 1973, according to the Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme, and while UXO casualties have fallen sharply in recent years there is little support for UXO victims, whose injuries can drastically affect their families.
The Laos Disabled People’s Association (LDPA) is a civil society organisation and the sole Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) that encompasses all people with disability in Laos. The LDPA is recognised as the nations leading DPO, and serves an important role as the peak advocacy body for people with disability.The LDPA promotes the rights and interests of people living with disability, and supports a membership based network of ten provincial branches and one branch in Vientiane Capital, as well as numerous cell groups in both urban and rural areas. Cell groups function as volunteer based, self help groups, and members feed information to, and receive information from, headquarters. This two way dialogue is crucial to building human rights based knowledge, and other essential information about services, networks and many other issues for people with disability, from central level to grassroots level.
HI has extensive experience in building the capacity of local actors (both institutional and non-institutional), through a variety of project interventions, including provision of training, survey tools, methodology and reference materials developed in Lao language. Capacity building also includes sharing technical workshops and building medium- to long-term national strategies. HI has also engaged strategically in non-project support to strengthen organizations working for people with disabilities.
