Time get serious on helping the disabled, congress told.

MONTIAN BUNTAN says the war is not won yet.

The 600 congress representatives hope to achieve this through pushing the CBR into action.

Although 137 countries have signed the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and 48 have ratified it, little has actually been done to follow the convention's conditions seriously enough, speakers at the congress said.

 "We have not yet won the war on exclusion, isolation and discrimination because the CRPD is still waiting to be implemented. Many countries have not even signed it. Many signed, but have not ratified it. Many have ratified, but not yet implemented it.We have to put pressure on them (the governments)," Montian Buntan, a visually impaired Thai senator said on Wednesday at the opening of the first Asia Pacific CBR Congress at the Prince Palace Hotel.

Akiko Ito, from the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs, urged member countries to implement the CBR, together with the UN's convention , and follow up results of the implementation.

Akiko said the CRPD needed to draft a scope of work for communities' members, while CBR would help develop human rights and economic issues for the disabled.

There are 650 million people with disabilities  around 10 per cent of the world's population - of whom 80 per cent live in developing countries, most in rural areas. Ninety per cent of children among them are uneducated.

Thailand among  countries pushing to implement community rehabilitation among people with disabilities.

The country started using CBR in 2004. The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security's national office for empowerment of persons with disability sought volunteers in local communities to find the disabled in their communities, provide them with information about basic rehabilitation, and refer the handicapped for further treatment.

"We've also convinced local authorities to provide the budget for people with disabilities and collaborate with our volunteers as we aim to expand CBR to every local community," said Sunee Saisupatpon, deputy secretary general of the office.

Apart from Thailand, other countries implementing CBR include Cambodia and the Philippines.

Cambodia provides mobility devices and physiotherapy treatment to the disabled in communities and builds ramps, toilets and roads at schools, which students can access. The Philippines focuses on institutionalising the CBR program.

The congress  ends today.