GHANA – The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has announced that plans are underway to conduct field awareness and sensitization campaigns focused on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in West Africa.
The West African community block highlighted that it is organizing a regional training and coordination meeting of the region’s experts and it is scheduled to hold in Accra, Ghana from 10th to 12th October 2022.
“The meeting will serve as a framework to build capacity of focal points for the inclusion of persons with disabilities, on reporting requirements of the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),” the group noted.
The group further said that the meeting will equally sensitize the region’s focal points on the importance of the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights relating to the rights of Persons with Disabilities (AfChHPR-PWDs).
Through the Department of Human Development and Social Affairs, ECOWAS is organizing field awareness and sensitization campaigns in the respective Member States for the ratification and implementation of the AfChHPR-PWDs.
At the end of the Accra meeting, the experts from ECOWAS Member States will draw up a framework on the appropriate means to enable several Member States ratify this important Protocol of AfChHPR-PWDs. To date, only three of the fifteen Member States have ratified the Protocol.
The ECOWAS Regional Action Plan for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, which was validated by the region’s experts in April 2022, clearly states the measures to be undertaken to strengthen the implementation of international and continental instruments on the rights of persons with disabilities.
“The action plan is a result of the regional study by ECOWAS on the inclusion of persons with disabilities, which was conducted between August 2021 and April 2022,” the group said.
The study had revealed that persons with disabilities in the region face social stigma, especially those with mental disabilities, or with hearing or visual disabilities.
Subsequently, the governments of ECOWAS Member States are committed to taking necessary measures for the inclusive development of persons with disabilities through policies and programmes relevant to persons with disabilities.
ECOWAS is also keen to conduct field awareness and sensitization campaigns in the respective Member States for the ratification and implementation of the AfChHPR-PWDs and strengthen the capacities of actors in the Member States.
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