Asian Paralympic General Assembly Closes With Clear Mandate For Change

The 4th Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) General Assembly closed today in Bangkok, with the members voting overwhelmingly for a change in the APC constitution.

The amended constitution sees a change both in the membership structure which is effective immediately and the composition of the Board which will come into effect at the next Board elections in 2018.

Currently the APC’s members consist of the National Paralympic Committees from Asia. The new constitution will allow for additional non-voting members to come from Regional Organisations of Sport for Disabled People, Regional Paralympic Sport Federations and Regional non-Paralympic Sport Federations. The rationale for this is that it will closely mirror the IPC membership structure and should also help promote para-sport at the regional level. In addition the five sub-regional committees will be able to become full voting members.

The changes to the Board composition enable the General Assembly to elect more members of the Executive Board and clarify which groups will be represented on the Board.

In other business, IPC Vice President Andrew Parsons addressed the Assembly. He outlined the importance of a strong Asian region for the Paralympic movement given that the next three Games will take place there. The General Assembly also received updates on the APC’s finances and approved the budget for the forthcoming year. An overview of the APC activity over the past two years was presented and the Organising Committees from PyeongChang 2018, Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games and Tokyo 2020 gave presentations on Games preparations.

President Majid Rashed said

“We took the decision to move the General Assemblies to bi-annually because we want to foster close relationships between our members, to share best practice and help to strengthen the Paralympic movement in our region. We’ve had a very productive two days with much discussion and debate. It is clear that as a region we are ambitious and committed to really grasping the opportunities that the next eight years present. It has been a pleasure to meet with our colleagues and we all leave motivated for what the future will bring”

More than 90 attendees from thirty three of the region’s National Paralympic Committees and observers from International Federations, the IPC and Regional Sports Organisations were present.

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