Expedite action on review of Disability Act - Federation

By Kodjo Adams, GNA
Accra, April 18, GNA - The Ghana Federation of the Disabled has called on the Government to expedite action on the review of the Persons with Disability Act (Act 715, 2006) to address the inefficiencies and meet international standards.

The Federation said the Act, which came into effect in 2006, preceded the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (PWDs) which Ghana voluntarily signed in 2007 and ratified in 2012.

It said the Act was not detailed enough compared to the UN Convention, adding that Ghana's Act lacked provision for children and women with disability, humanitarian services and political participation.

The Federation made the call during a panel discussion held in Accra by the Ghana Journalists Association programme dubbed: 'Business Advocate' on Ghana Television.

The programme is supported by the BUSAC Fund, DANIDA, the United States Agency for International Development and the European Union.

Speaking on the topic: Towards Amendment of the law on Persons with Disability, Mr Isaac Tuugun, the Programme Officer of PWD, said the delay in the review was affecting their right to social services.

The United Nations Convention on Disability, now part of the body of legislations in Ghana, in Article 4(b) under the general obligations, enjoins state parties to the Convention to harmonize their domestic legislations with the Convention.

Mr Tuugun said even though the Federation had produced and submitted a gap analysis report to the Ministry of Gender, children and Social Protection to speed-up the review process of the Act, nothing concrete had been done about it.

He explained that the harmonization would eliminate the difficulties and confusion arising from the application of the two pro-disability legislations; with the same objectives but which differed greatly from each other in context and scope.

'Though disability is an evolving concept, Act 715 had a closed definition of a person with disability while the UN Convention had an open definition to permit the inclusion of emerging categories of disability,' he said.

Mr Tuugu said the UN Convention promoted inclusive education at all levels but the country's Act 715 prescribed the designation of schools or institutions in each region to provide facilities and equipment to enable PWDs to participate in education adding that this limited the opportunities of PWDs to participate in education.

He said the Federation saw the phenomenon as unfriendly and the healthcare and employment provisions in Act 715 also suffered similar limitations.

He said while the UN Convention enjoined close consultation and active involvement of PWDs in decision-making processes, Act 715 prescribed nothing on that.

Mr Richard Acheampong, a Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and Social Enterprise, expressed concerns about the delay in the review process, urging parliamentarians to expedite action.

He expressed worry about the inability to provide features to suit PWDs in the construction of the new senior high schools across the country, saying this was a neglect of the welfare of PWDs.

He urged the Federation to test the law by going to court to ensure that anybody found flouting the law was punished to serve as deterrent.

Mr Kwamena Dadzie, the Acting Executive Secretary, National Council on Persons with Disability, said he found it difficult to understand why most of the modern structures were unfriendly to PWDs.

He said the Council was coming out with policies to ensure that buildings met the design for PWDs.

GNA