The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Lariba Zuweira Abudu says, she is committed to ensuring that the Persons with Disabilities Bill 2022, is passed into law without any further delay.
She is hopeful that it would be passed in her tenure as Social Protection minister, considering how far the process has gone.
She discloses that she gave specific instructions to the Technical Committee for the review of the Persons with Disability Act to incorporate aspects of the African Disability Protocol into the Persons with Disability Bill, 2022.
She further discloses that she is taking steps for Ghana to sign and ratify the African Disability Protocol.
Hon. Zuweira Abudu made the comments in a speech read on her behalf by the Executive Secretary of the National Council on Persons with Disability, Lawyer Esther Akua Gyamfi, during this year’s National Disability Day celebration in Accra on June 23, 2023.
The theme for this year’s commemoration was “Amend Ghana’s Person with Disability Act Now: A Step to Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
The theme aimed to highlight existing gaps in Ghana’s Disability Act and call on duty-bearers to amend it to align with international treaties and protocols, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006, which Ghana ratified in 2012.
It was also to mobilize stakeholders to work collectively toward the effective inclusion of persons with disabilities in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Disability Act 2006 (Act 715) has been under review for some time now. It is at the drafting stage at the moment.
A member of the Parliamentary select committee on Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Emmanuel Marfo who represented the committee, assures the gathering that the committee will respond to their concerns in no time.
He also promises that the committee will soon bring the Disability Bill to the front burner of Parliament and push for its passage.
Hon. Marfo urges the disability community to continue knocking on the doors of Parliament because that is the way to court the attention of the house since there are equally pressing requests from others, competing for attention.
SOURCE: DisabilityNewsGH.com