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APDF Ulsan Statement 2025

Ulsan Statement on

“Breaking Barriers, Building Futures”

Towards an Inclusive and Accessible Asia-Pacific

for Persons with Disabilities
29–31 October 2025, Ulsan, Republic of Korea

Preamble
We, the participants of the Asia Pacific Disability Forum (APDF) Conference, gathered in Ulsan, Republic of Korea, reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the Jakarta Declaration on the Asian and Pacific Decades of Persons with Disabilities (2023-2032).

We acknowledge the ongoing efforts by governments to enact this fourth Decade and value the contributions of the ESCAP Secretariate and Working Group.

1. Building on a Legacy of Action

We recognize the foundational role our network has played in advancing disability rights across the region over three decades:
1.1 APDF’s predecessor, the Regional NGO Network (RNN), was instrumental in promoting and monitoring the First Decade (1993-2002) through ten rotational campaign conferences across nine countries.
1.2 Our members actively shaped the core policy frameworks for the subsequent Decades, including the Biwako Millennium Framework (BMF) and the Incheon Strategy.
1.3 APDF has consistently served as a key knowledge hub and advocate, engaging with ESCAP review mechanisms and organizing pivotal regional conferences.

2. Critical Challenges for the Current Decade

We reaffirm that the meaningful participation of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) is essential for the realization and monitoring of the Jakarta Declaration and the Fourth Decade goals. Despite this legacy, we identify pressing challenges that threaten to undermine the promise of the Jakarta Declaration:

2.1 A Precarity Nexus: Persons with disabilities and their families face a convergence of crises—economic instability, geopolitical conflict, and natural disasters—which depletes resources for essential services and inclusive policies. This marginalization is exacerbated by the rapid advancement of IT and AI, creating a new digital divide that risks leaving them further behind.

2.2 Collaboration Deficits: Efforts among stakeholders remain fragmented, lacking the coordination and strategic unity required to generate meaningful regional and sub-regional impact.
2.3 Policy Invisibility: Awareness of the Jakarta Declaration remains critically low among the public and the disability community itself, resulting in minimal tangible influence on national and local programming.

2.4 Shrinking Civic Space: Recent structural reforms and administrative mergers have reduced the autonomy of OPDs, threatening their capacity for independent advocacy and data representation.

3. A Framework for Accelerated Progress
To translate the Jakarta Declaration into tangible action, we urge the following:
3.1. Enhance Strategic Awareness and Collaboration: APDF, with its partners, should encourage and prioritize resource mobilization to fund awareness-raising events and ensure the full participation of developing countries and under-represented groups.
3.2 APDF should be supported so that it can actively facilitate bilateral and regional partnerships to realize context-specific national projects and systematize the sharing of good practices.

 4. Strengthen Implementation Mechanisms
4.1 OPDs and CSOs must intensify joint, accountable efforts to implement the Jakarta Declaration at all levels, leveraging their collective human and financial capital.

4.2 DPOs and CSOs should take essential actions to realize the “15% for the 15%” strategy emphasized in the Aman-Berlin Declaration of Global Disability Summit 2025, thereby enhancing the implementation of the Jakarta Declaration.

5. Align with Global Frameworks
All actors must strengthen the synergistic implementation of the UN CRPD and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a targeted focus on disability-specific targets, particularly within SDG Goal 4 Quality Education, and SDG Goal 8 Decent Work, SDG Goal 10 reduced Inequalities, and SDG Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities; and the Global Disability Summit commitments.

 6. A Unified Call to Action
We call upon all stakeholders to:
6.1 Guarantee Representation: Ensure the voices of persons with disabilities are central and influential in all policy-making spaces.
6.2 Leverage Innovation: Harness inclusive new technologies, including digital and AI-assisted tools, to democratize knowledge sharing, empower advocacy and support independent living.
6.3 Fortify Solidarity: Strengthen regional cohesion to build a resilient and unified movement for disability rights.
6.4 Sustain Momentum: Actively promote the impact of the 2025 APDF Ulsan Conference and build momentum towards the 2027 APDF Malaysia Conference as critical platforms for effective networking to support the Decade Goals.

ONLY by breaking down these barriers together can we build a truly  inclusive, rights-based, and sustainable future for all persons with disabilities.

Asia Pacific Disability Forum
October 2025, Ulsan, South Korea