The various Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies have been urged to commit to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (PWDs), and work towards eliminating barriers of social exclusion that hinder their realisation for self-confidence.
Ms. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Secretary of Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), made the appeal at a day’s workshop to help Municipal and District assemblies mainstream disability issues into their development planning, held in Sunyani.
She also called on the assemblies to make purposeful efforts to provide the PWDs with adequate protection, as stipulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of PWDs, which ensures equal access by to clean water services, and to appropriate and affordable services, devices, and other assistance for disability-related needs.
According to Ms. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, the UN Convention on Rights of PWDs ensures access by PWDs to public housing programmes, and that Ghana, in 2006, passed the Disability Act with a ten year moratorium, however, less has been done to oblige to the Act.
She anticipated that next year, when the moratorium ends, it would not be surprising to see PWDs and other concerned Ghanaians drag the management of public facilities to court, as well as some planning officers at the assemblies for non-compliance with the Disability Act.
The workshop was put together by VOICE Ghana, a disability advocacy organisation, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) and Local Governance Network, and was attended by planning officers from seven districts in the Brong-Ahafo Region – Berekum, Tano North and South, Sunyani Municipal, and Sunyani West, the Techiman and Dormaa East districts.
The workshop is expected to see some appreciable transformation in the situation of persons with disability.
Ms. Linda Ofori-Kwafo indicated that the protection for PWDs could come in the form of skills training, counselling services, financial assistance and other support programmes, adding, “There should be no excuse for anybody to either hold on to or misapply the two per cent allocation of the District Assemblies Common Fund meant to empower the PWDs.”
Mr. Max Vardon, former Executive Secretary of the National Council for Persons with Disability (NCPD), took the participants through the Convention on the Rights of PWDs and its optional Protocol, indicating that the convention is unique as a development and a human rights instrument, a policy instrument which is cross-disability and cross-sectoral, and legally binding on state parties.
The Director of VOICE Ghana, Mr. Francis Asong, announced plans to engage the National Development Planning Commission to evolve comprehensive national training programmes to build the capacity of the PWDs to play an active part and make stronger contributions to the nation’s progress.
He said similar workshops have been held in the Volta, Greater Accra, Central, Western, and Northern regions, while the Ashanti, Eastern, Upper East and West regions would be covered before the close of the year.
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