A Workshop in Vietnam on How the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Applies to Survivors of the Conflict

AEPD

19 February 2019

Last month our local partner in Vietnam, the Association for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, hosted a one day workshop as part of our research project Disability and Armed Conflict.

The workshop provided participants – including government officials and non-government organizations – with an overview of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with a particular focus on how the Convention applies to survivors of the Vietnam conflict who either sustained an impairment as a result of the conflict or whose impairment was exacerbated as a result of the conflict.

Dissemination of Research’s Findings

Vietnam is a case study within our research project on disability and armed conflict. A research team has previously undertaken field research in the country to consider the impact of the conflict on persons with disabilities and the implementation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

‘This workshop provided an important opportunity to disseminate our field research findings, and discuss these with local actors and hopefully draw attention to this incredibly important and largely overlooked issue', underlines Alice Priddy, Senior Researcher at the Geneva Academy.

The project’s final report, which will draw on field research conducted in several states, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Palestine, Vietnam and Ukraine, will be published in the spring of 2019.