The Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations (GFD) and other disability right organizations have re-echoed calls on Government to as a matter importance amend the Ghana Disability Act 715, 2006 to bring it in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD).
Ghana ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability in 2007 and signed the Optional protocols in 2012.
The Disability movement reminds government that, they urgently need an amended Disability Act and a Legislative Instrument to ensure full and smooth implementation to uphold the fundamental human rights of all Persons with Disability.
The group encouraged government, “to develop Legislative Instrument and the passage of regulations and other necessary infrastructure for the smooth and effective implementation of the Act 715 and the UNCRPD.”
These were contained in a communique issued at the end of a stakeholders’ workshop organized on the development of the legislative instrument on act 715, in Accra recently. It was on the theme: “Need for Legislative Instrument on Act 715.”
The workshop was put together by the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations in collaboration with MindFreedom -Ghana and the Media Caucus on Disability with support from the Disability Right Fund.
The event brought together over 70 participants from all Disability Organizations, Civil Society Partners, Disability Council, Media and other identifiable groups associated with the GFD in Ghana.
The communique recalled that the government of Ghana in an address at the 68th UN General Assembly in September 2013, informed the gathering that “Government is reviewing provisions of Persons with Disability Act 715 to realign it with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, and that a Legislative Instrument to promote the effective implementation of the Act has subsequently been drafted.”
The Communiqué concluded by reminding the government that “the violation of the details of the UNCRPD is deafening and that the fundamental human rights of Persons with Disability are grossly abused which is contrary to the Article 5 of the 1992 Constitution.”
By Mohammed Suleman
