Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection inaugurates Technical Committee to review Disability Act

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 organizations of persons with disability.

Members of the committee include a representative from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General, The Special Education Division of the Ghana Education Service, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice the Judicial Service

Other organizations represented on the committee are Head of Drafting Unit, Attorney General, Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, 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.

Mrs Cynthia Morrison charged 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.”

Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, Head of Institutional Care Division of the Ghana Health Service, who chairs the Committee, pledged his commitment to ensure that the committee works 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 is working within a time frame to submit the reviewed Act and its accompanying Legislative Instrument to Parliament by April 2020.