Ghana's Disability Community Presses for National Council
By Kay Schriner (kays@uark.edu)
Disabled people in Ghana are resisting the government's proposal for a national advisory council in favor of their own proposal for a National Disability Council.
The disability community argues that the government's proposed advisory body would have little or no power. Instead, they say that a national Council is required by the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons of 1982 and the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities of 1993. Such a body would have executive powers. The government's proposed advisory council would have no such power; instead it would only advise the Department of Social Welfare, which is part of the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment.
The government says in response that the Department of Social Welfare would be reorganized to take on the additional responsibilities of implementing new initiatives for people with disabilities.
But the disability community sees the government's proposal as a setback. "What the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment is about to impose on persons with disabilities amounts to setting the clock of progress many years back...and will be peacefully but firmly opposed," said Charles Appiagyei, President of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled.
Information for this story was taken from the Accra Mail.
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