As part of processes to amend the Persons with Disability Act 715, the National Council on Persons with Disability under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, held a national validation meeting with stakeholders in Accra on Thursday, December 14, 2023.
The validation engagement was held to seek final consensus on provisions of the Bill to form the justification for the Cabinet and Parliamentary approval.
The participants were given an overview of the legally drafted Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2023. They subsequently made inputs to help fine-tune the Bill.
The board chairman of the National Council on Persons with Disability, Mr. Yaw Ofori Deborah was impressed with the level of interest and the wealth of knowledge shared by the participants.
In an interview with DisabilityNewsGH, he expressed optimistim about the passage of the new Persons with Disabilities law before the end of the tenure of the current government.
“President Akufo-Addo being the Attorney General who supervised the whole process at the time the Disability Act 715 was passed, I believe he will be very much interested to be associated with the amendment”, he said.
The participants were drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies,
Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies.
Traditional leaders, organisations of persons with disabilities, organisations for persons with disabilities, the academia, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, development partners, and disability inclusion experts also participated.
The new disability law which complies with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), references a gap analysis between Act 715 and the UNCRPD made by the disability community.
Since 2019 when the Hon. Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection officially constituted a technical committee to spearhead the review process, there have been 20 technical committee meetings and 8 national broad stakeholder consultations on the Draft Amendments and an accompanying Draft Legislative Instrument.
The technical committee is expected to work on the additional suggestions made and prepare the final Bill to be submitted to the Cabinet for approval before finally laying it before Parliament.
The validation engagement was supported by the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The day of the national validation engagement was also used to commemorate the 2023 International Day of Persons with Disabilities which was under the theme “United in action to rescue and achieve the SDGs for, with and by persons with disabilities.”
SOURCE: DisabilityNewsGH.com