Sunday Island:  Sunday 29^th May 2016
 

 

People with disabilities let down again?

An open letter to the President and Prime Minister

By Dr. Padmani Mendis

Advisor, Disability and Rehabilitation

Our Minister of Foreign Affairs ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on behalf of Sri Lanka on February 08 this year. Sri Lankans with disabilities rejoiced. A Minister of Social Services went all the way to New York to place his signature on the Convention on March 30 2007. With this came the promise that our country would soon take the next step of ratification. That was not to be - not until 9 years later when Yahapalana government came along.

A committee was set up by the Chairman of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities to make recommendations regarding the mechanism required by our country to ensure implementation of the UN Convention for which we have a Cabinet-approved National Action Plan for Disabilities. The Committee recommended overwhelmingly that a NDC should be set up within the Presidential Secretariat, or failing this within the PM’s Secretariat. This was to demonstrate our country’s resolve to make a reality of the UN Disability Convention.

Keeping it within the social welfare sector (which still operates on the principle of charity) under a new Disability Rights Act will demonstrate that ratification was, in the words of the UNHCHR, merely "human rights window-dressing". It shows a poor understanding of disability rights on the part of the leaders of our Government. Without doubt it places in jeopardy the acceptance of new Disability Rights Law as a precondition for GSP+. It will pave the way for negative comment in the report to the UNHRC at the sessions in September. And worst of all, it puts our country to shame – that the highest in the land is not concerned with the poorest of its people.

It seems that the President and Prime Minister have rejected the suggestion to have a National Disability Commission (NDC) to be set up within one of their secretariats. That is what we, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, were told by the Minister for Social Empowerment and Welfare today, the 25th of May. We were told this has been discussed by the Cabinet, and you have both said the NDC must be set up within the Ministry of Social Empowerment and Welfare. We were very surprised and disappointed to hear this. Ratification of this Convention has committed our country "to promote and protect the rights and dignity" of our people with disabilities, young and old, women and men.

With this comes the commitment to include people with disabilities as equal citizens, in all government ministries and other bodies providing goods, services and opportunities to Sri Lankan citizens. Moving disability into a human rights framework in this way includes a commitment in the ratification process itself, that the Government will set up a mechanism (which we have called the NDC) to coordinate all these institutions and tasks. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a special report goes on to recommend that such a mechanism - in our case the NDC- should provide oversight and coordination and be placed "at the most senior level of Government …. at the heart of Government, in the Office of the President or Prime Minister".

Perhaps you were not aware of these responsibilities that came with ratification when you discussed this issue in Cabinet. Perhaps your thoughts were on the mandate for disability welfare work such as cash transfers, distribution of assistive devices etc., which should of course continue with the ministry of social empowerment and welfare; just as the education ministry will have the responsibility for ensuring educational opportunities for all primary and secondary school-age children with disabilities, the sports ministry for sports for persons with disabilities and transportation bodies to make public transportation accessible to all and so on as per the National Action Plan for Disability. We would like to know why you have rejected the suggestion that an NDC should be set up within the Presidential Secretariat, or the PM’s Secretariat.

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e-mail:    mendisnl@sltnet.lk;   padmanimendis@hotmail.com;

BlogSpot;  http://padmanimendis.blogspot.com/