[Statement] The Korean Disability Organizations Stand in Solidarity with Nepal’s Protest Movement For Personal Assistant Services and Guaranteed Community Support

Statement

 

The Korean Disability Organizations Stand in Solidarity

with Nepal’s Protest Movement For Personal Assistant Services

and Guaranteed Community Support

 

 

Last April, the hunger strike of a Nepalese citizen with disabilities, Deepak Bhandari, and the protests of the Nepal disability organizations started. They condemned the Nepal Government for not implementing its own law and its agreements to provide essential services such as personal assistant services(PAS). However, the government remained silent, and on May 15, the police forcibly arrested the protesters and broke up a peaceful demonstration of picketing and chanting. The police brutality was vividly documented on a video, with the police force dragging out the protesters out of their wheelchairs and beating them, leaving some protesters severely injured and hospitalized. 

 

Nepal has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(UN CRPD) in 2010 and is obligated under Article 19 to realize the right to ‘Living Independently and Being Included in the Community’. Furthermore, Nepal’s domestic law, Article 3, Section 9 of ‘the Act Relating to Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, clearly states ‘the Right to Community Life’, including the right to choose one’s own residence and to obtain community assistance necessary for a dignified life. 

 

Based on these legal grounds, since March, Deepak Bhandari and the Nepal disability organizations have been urging the federal government to implement PAS and provide necessary budgets for the services. However, the Nepal government did not respond to their demands. After a week of protests that began on March 19, Nepal’s Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens(MoWCSC) and the Ministry of Finance had agreed to provide PAS to at least 11 individuals with disabilities initially and to develop guidelines and an implementation plan in consultation with disability organizations to gradually increase beneficiaries. However, even with prompt finalization of the guidelines, the ministries have pushed off the official approval processes, and the agreements, including the provision of PAS, were not implemented. The citizens of Nepal did not give up and continued their fight through the hunger strike and the protests, which were violently repressed by the government. 

 

PAS is essential in supporting independent living for persons with disabilities(“PWD”). In 2006, through a 43-day encampment protest and a 6-hour protest crawling across the Han River Bridge, the Korean disability organizations achieved the legislation of PAS. However, the fight for full provision of PAS is still ongoing in South Korea as well, as the Korean government does not provide 24-hour PAS per day, and it excludes PWD who are over 65 years old from the PAS provision. 

 

We, the Korean disability organizations, stand in solidarity with the Nepal disability organizations in their struggle to demand PAS and guaranteed community support. We also strongly condemn the Nepal Government's indifference and neglect towards the rights of PWD and its repression and violence against the protests by the Nepal disability organizations. Our demands for the Nepal Government are the following: 

 

- Stop violently repressing the protests and immediately release all arrested protesters! 

- Promptly implement the agreements on the provision of PAS and guaranteed community support! 

- As a signatory to the UN CRPD, build the systems that considers the rights of PWD stated in the Convention! 

 

We stand in solidarity with the Nepal disability organizations and their fight for independent living. Nepal’s protest movement reminded us that the Korean disability movement is not isolated. We realize that our struggles are connected, and the Korean disability organizations declare that we would advocate for the human rights of people who fight for disability justice in Nepal. 

 

2024.06.11.

 

Korean Disability Forum

Disability and Humanrights In Action

Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination 

National Council of Popular School for People with Disability

Korea Council of Centers for Independent Living (KCIL)

Korean Parents' Network for the People with Disabilities

NAYA' Disability Human rights Education center

Disability Discrimination Act of Solidarity in Korea