The government must establish a separate ministry dedicated to the persons with disabilities, and national human rights institutions to implement and monitor the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD), and create a comprehensive, unequivocal and detailed legislation to make the guarantees under CRPD real in practice.
This was demanded in a workshop entitled "Uniting Civil Society Groups for Amplifying Disability Issues" held at a resource centre. The training was organised by Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM), and was joined by 22 Muslim and Christian participants including persons with disabilities, teachers and activists from five districts namely Lahore, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Jhang and Kasur. Naseem Anthony, Dr Jawwad Afzal, Shazia George, Nazia Sardar, Shafique-ur-Rehman and Dr Sajid Ali were among the trainers.
Speaking on the occasion, AWAM Executive Secretary Naseem Anthony said, "Persons with disabilities are still primarily viewed as 'objects' of welfare or medical treatment rather than 'holders' of rights. Mostly DPOs and NGOs are spending their energies and resources upon development, charity and rehabilitation, unfortunately very less resources are allocated for rights-based activities."
"In order to sensitise the general public and have a comprehensive legislation, the organisations concerned with disability issues should adopt the rights-based approach," he added. He further said, "Persons with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty, which is often result of ignorance and neglect that is reinforced in government and development policies and programmes that ignore, exclude, are not accessible to or do not support the rights of persons with disabilities to be included in the socio-economic life of the county."
A government official, Dr Jawwad Afzal said, "The government is focusing upon the implementation of National Plan of Action 2006, and developing mechanism to implement CRPD in its true sense." "There exist many organisations concerned with disability issues, but they have never conducted base-line study depicting the overall situation of persons with disabilities, therefore the organisations should join hands with government departments and conduct research based survey in order to give input to make the policies and laws as per the needs of the PWDs," he added.
The Co-ordinator of the AWAM, Shazia George said, "There are deep and persistent negative stereotypes and prejudices against persons with certain conditions and differences. These attitudes determine who is considered to be a person with a disability and perpetuate the negative image of persons with disabilities. The language used to refer to persons with disabilities plays a significant role in creating and maintaining negative stereotypes, therefore language must be revised in all existing documents. Terms such as; crippled, handicap, disabled or mentally retarded, blind, deaf and dumb are clearly derogative, therefore positive terms such as; persons with disabilities, visually impaired, hearing impaired, vocally impaired and intellectually impaired must be used for promotion of positive attitude towards persons with disabilities."
AWAM Director Nazia Sardar said, "Women with disabilities, being one of the most neglected and isolated groups of the society, remain largely invisible and voiceless, ignored by national policies and laws, even though they face multiple forms of discrimination, structural poverty and social exclusion. Their issues and needs are often overlooked within services and programmes. Legislation, policy and services for women with disabilities experiencing, or at risk of experiencing violence, are limited at best and non-existent at worst."
"The parliament must conduct comprehensive review of existing legislation and adapt a new law incorporating the content of the CPRD convention to ensure that rights of persons with disabilities are respected and protected," she demanded. Director of Milestone Society of Disabled People, Shafique-ur-Rehman said, "Societal behaviours and attitude are those motives which realise the persons with disabilities about their disability. Our State is not paying any attentions towards ensuring the accessibility of persons with disabilities despite having different commitments in country and abroad," he added.
Director of the Society of Disabled People for the Rights and Development, Dr Sajid Ali said, "Though the government of Pakistan has ratified the CRPD a year back, but the implementation mechanism is still missing at federal as well as provincial level. Therefore, it is imperative to revise strategies, policies and legislation as per international commitments."
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