By
Hannah Awadzi, GNA
Accra, Nov. 8, GNA –
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Cynthia Morrison,
on Friday inaugurated a technical committee to review the persons with
disabilities Act, 2006 (Act 715) to comply with the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disability.
The Committee, set
up by the National Council of Persons with Disabilities, will work together
with consultants to prepare the regulation to accompany the Act 715 and
consider the proposed amendment submitted by the organisations of persons with
disability.
Mrs Morrison charged
the members of the Committee to come up with realistic amendments that were
achievable, “Do not put just anything on paper to impress, make sure you put
together a document that can be achieved”.
Members of the
committee include a representative from the Sector Ministry and those of the Ministries of Local Government and Rural Development;
Health; and Justice.
Other
representatives are from the Ghana Health Service; Department of
Social Welfare; the Special Education Division of the Ghana Education Service
and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice the Judicial
Service.
Other organisations
represented on the committee are the Ghana Federation of Disability
Organisations; the Academia; Centre for Employment of Persons with Disability;
Special Mothers Project; Child-Health- Paediatric Neuro-Disability Unit of the
Accra Regional Hospital; Department of Audiology, Speech and Language Therapy;
Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies and the Executive Secretary of
the National Council of Persons with Disabilities.
Dr Samuel Kaba
Akoriyea, Head of Institutional Care Division of the Ghana Health Service, who
chairs the Committee, pledged his commitment to ensure that it worked to
accomplish its mandate.
“We all need to be
concerned about disability because there is a very thin line between disability
and ability,” he said.
Ms Esther Ekua
Gyamfi, Executive Secretary of the National Council of Persons with
Disabilities, said the committee would work within a time frame to submit the
reviewed Act and its accompanying Legislative Instrument to Parliament by April
2020.
GNA
