By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK
Cabinet last week mandated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
But when the convention opened for signatures on 30 March, Namibia did not sign the convention and its optional protocol.
Senior Control Officer in the Disability Advisory Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, Oscar Andima, said the convention was still open to signatures.
He explained that Namibia did not sign the convention because maybe the UN office received the information late. Cabinet took the decision to sign the convention on 27 March.
The signing ceremony took place on 30 March at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Eighty-four multilateral treaties were deposited with the UN Secretary-General on 30 March, according to the website on the convention.
The convention elaborates in detail the rights of persons with disabilities and sets out a code of implementation and countries that join in the convention engage themselves to develop and carry out policies, laws and administrative measures for securing the rights recognised in the convention and abolish laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination.
Because a change of perceptions is essential to improve the situation of persons with disabilities, ratifying countries are to combat stereotypes and prejudices and promote awareness of the capabilities of persons with disabilities.
Countries are to guarantee that persons with disabilities enjoy their inherent right to life on an equal basis with others, ensure the equal rights and advancement of women and girls with disabilities and protect children with disabilities.
The convention also requires children with disabilities to have equal rights, not be separated from their parents against their will, except when the authorities determine that this is in the child’s best interests, and in no case can they be separated from their parents on the basis of a disability of either the child or the parents.
Countries are also to recognise that all persons are equal before the law, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantee equal legal protection.
The weekly Cabinet release said last week the Office of the Prime Minister consulted several stakeholders on the draft text of the convention for their inputs and comments on which basis it negotiated with other participants at the United Nations.
Cabinet had also approved the Continental Plan of Action for the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities and directed the Office of the Prime Minister to co-ordinate and monitor the implementation of the Namibian Disability Action Plan.
The plan was ratified in Parliament in February 2005.
Cabinet, therefore, approved the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol and requested the Office of the Prime Minister to co-ordinate and monitor its implementation and report to the United Nations on its implementation.
The Disability Advisory Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister was set up to co-ordinate disability issues in the country in accordance with objective eight of the Continental Plan of Action for the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities.