Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - China (Ratification: 1988)

Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Convention. Implementation of a national policy on vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. The Committee welcomes the detailed information provided by the Government on the laws, regulations and policies adopted during the reporting period, such as the Outline on the Development of China's Disability Work during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan Period and the Outline of Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas (2011–20). The Government indicates that the Outline of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan Period stipulates the goals, policies and measures on promoting the rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities from 2011 to 2015. Goals on rehabilitation include improving rehabilitation service networks and protection mechanisms and accelerating the training of professional rehabilitation personnel so as to preliminarily achieve the goal of providing “Rehabilitation service for all”. Other rehabilitation goals concern carrying out comprehensive community-based rehabilitation services and implementing rehabilitation projects to help 13 million persons with disabilities rehabilitate to various degrees. Goals of the Outline with respect to employment include improving policies and measures of employment promotion and protection of persons with disabilities, stabilizing and expanding their employment, improving their employment quality, encourage them to start businesses and achieve the goal of new employment for one million urban persons with disabilities. In order to promote the employment of persons with disabilities, the Committee notes that the Government consults with organizations of persons with disabilities and with employers’ and workers’ organizations, as well as organizations serving persons with disabilities. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide updated information on the impact of the measures adopted to promote the full, productive and sustainable employment of persons with disabilities, including employment and vocational rehabilitation programmes and active labour market policy measures focussing on promoting the employment of persons with disabilities in the open labour market. Please also continue to provide information on the content and outcome of the consultations held with employers’ and workers’ organizations and representative organizations of and for persons with disabilities on the matters covered by the Convention. It further requests the Government to provide statistics and relevant data, as much as possible, disaggregated by age, gender and nature of the disability, as well as extracts of reports, studies and inquiries concerning the matters covered by the Convention.

Article 8. Services in rural areas and remote communities. The Committee notes from the report that about two out of three persons with disabilities in China live in rural areas, a considerable part of whom are living in poverty. The Outline of Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas (2011–20) stipulates that persons with disabilities in rural areas should be fully supported to engage in planting, animal farming and domestic handicraft industry as a means to overcome poverty. The Government adds that, in 2014, persons with disabilities in need generally received rehabilitation services in cities and rural areas that are located in more developed areas. Rehabilitation services in underdeveloped rural areas reached more than 70 per cent. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the vocational rehabilitation and employment services provided for persons with disabilities in rural areas and remote communities, and their impact on access to and retention in sustainable employment for persons with disabilities in rural areas and remote communities.