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Access to justice for persons with disabilities Indonesia: background assessment report

This is a background assessment report on persons with disabilities in Indonesia. "There is a negative stigma associated with disabilities in Indonesia that interprets disability as identical to sickness or weakness. A person with a disability is seen as a person without capability who will only burden those around them. Policy and legislation is dominated and informed by the charity based approach, which means that in law disability is typically addressed as an aspect of social security and welfare legislation, health law or interdiction1 law. Also reflecting this approach, the Ministry for Social Affairs has primary carriage for disability related issues. The medical model of disability is also apparent in law and policy, which views disability as a deficiency or deviation from the norm, located in the individual, which can be fixed. Both approaches are considered outdated, and are contrary to current international thinking on the topic, which views disability as a human rights issue and recognises disability as the consequence of interaction with an environment that does not accommodate that individual’s differences and limits or impedes the individual’s participation in society (see the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities)."