Disabled oppose disability Bill

Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) on Tuesday rejected the establishment of an Advisory National Disability Council" as envisaged under the National Disability Bill saying they would prefer an executive body.

"This kind of advisory council is unacceptable and will be resisted every step of the way," Mr Charles Appiagyei, President of GFD, said at a press conference organised by the GFD on its position on the bill.

"Not only is it contrary to the current trends in disability policy but it will also set back the clock of progress in the disability field and completely wipe out all the gains made by the disability movement in Ghana since independence."

Mr Appiagyei said the establishment of National Disability Council was recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Disability Policy in 1996 and was embodied in the National Disability Policy of 2000 and in the original draft of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2001.

"At this time, the Council was to have executive powers and was to be located at the then Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare. It will be responsible for the overall co-ordination of disability activities in Ghana."

He said at a review meeting on the Bill in September last year, however, the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment announced its intention to create an advisory council, stripped of all executive powers.

"The Organisations of Persons with Disability vehemently opposed this position at that meeting and later presented a resolution to the Minister on 3rd December calling for a Council with executive powers as previously stated."

Mr Appiagyei said such a Council would be identical to the national co-ordinating bodies on disability, which exist in Zimbabwe and Malawi, among other countries and would be in line with the requirements of the World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons (1982) and UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of the Persons with Disability (1993).