Speed up revision of Disability Act
The Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) has appealed to the government to speed up the process of revising the Disability Act to address the discrimination faced by physically challenged persons.
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The Federation said that it had been more than a year since the government made a promise at the 68th United Nations (UN) General Assembly, to review Ghana’s Persons with Disability Act (Act 715, 2006).
The Focal Person of the Federation, Mr Isaac Tuggun, disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic.
Background
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, said at the 68th UN General Assembly in September 2013, that the government was reviewing the provisions of persons with Disability Act, to realign it with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.
The minister said the realignment was to “harmonise Ghana’s obligations under both local and International law and that “a Legislative Instrument to promote the effective implementation of the act has subsequently been drafted”.
Good news
Mr Tuggun described the promise as “good news and heart-warming information for persons with disability and organisations of persons with disability (PWDs) who found the act to contain ambiguous and discretionary provisions.
He said, however, that despite the fact that the GFD had produced and submitted a gap analysis report to the government, through the Gender Ministry as its contribution to fast-tracking the review process of the act, nothing had been done.
He, therefore, called on all stakeholders to show interest in the government’s promise to review Act 715, so that the right legal environment would be created to improve the situation of physically challenged persons in every part of the country.
