Persons living with disabilities to get more rights

Michael Murphy at DADP AGM on Monday

Dominica has moved one step further in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities after government approved the request to have it ratified.

President of the Dominica Association of Persons with Disabilities (DAPD), Michael Murphy, said the government sent a formal notification to the DAPD on 20th June 2012 of their approval for ratification.

He made the announcement at the 28th Annual General Meeting of the DAPD on Monday morning.

“We have been campaigning for government to ratify our convention and the optional protocol. During the past few months we embarked on a campaign to ensure that the entire population was educated on the subject of disability and creating a barrier free society for all,” Murphy said.

He thanked the Government of Dominica for approving their request.

Murphy also stated that equal opportunities for persons with disabilities are one of the main benefits of the ratification. “The convention deals with access to justice, the physical environment and political participation, whatever the majority of people have access to should be accorded to persons with disabilities,” he said.

Murphy added that the association is prepared to move to the next level and advocate for the implementation and monitoring of the ratification of the convention since it has not yet been ratified officially.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.

The Convention came into force on May 3, 2008.

As of August 2012, it has 153 signatories and 119 parties.

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8 Comments

  1. grell
    August 28, 2012

    20 yrs too late get with it

  2. Justice and Truth
    August 27, 2012

    In bygone years people with disabilities were not recognized publicly as they are today. They were taken for granted as people who were caste aside and sometimes forgotten. I am pleased to read that something constructive is being done to assist them and to accord them, as people, their due rights and dignity. It is a beginning.
    I always had respect for those who have disabilities of any nature and to help them in whatever manner when the opportunity presents itself. I attribute this to my parents nurturing.
    Common sense should inform us to care for them and to help as we possibly could. We should keep in mind that as we age, we never know what the future holds for us. This is one of the reasons why we should care for them with love and respect.
    I visualize that it is not easy to be disabled and to have to depend on others for whatever assistance. May God bless them all.

  3. joan
    August 27, 2012

    IT IS ABOUT TIME

  4. MAC
    August 27, 2012

    About time, people with disabilities have been treated with disrespect, stigmatised, and a lot of rubbish talk about them, but it is good to see something is to be done, i work at the olympic park in Srtatford london and was very happy to see that the Caribbean< jamaica, Haiti Trinidad, (non from Dominica,)have recognised the disabled folks, i hope this talk is not hot air like all the others.

    • August 27, 2012

      @Mac

      That attitude of people regarding disabled people, regarding those people to be lower than themselves, is the attitude of the carnally minded persons or people.

      I have a hearing disability which has been altered by an very expensive hearing aid device–paid for by the Government of Canada. They say that that amount is of money is justifiable; because of the contribution, which I can give to the society throughout my Lifetime, would supersede that sum.

      And yes! I do contribute with passion, wherever and whenever I am called to do so.

      God has a plan for every person who enters this world, and this plan of His was established long before we entered our mother’s womb. He knew in what condition of our existence, in this world, that He would cause the thing He planned for us to manifest.

      That is the reason, we need to give God the glory, for whoever we are, and whatever the good things that we do.

      Who can disrespect men like Stevie Wonder, for example. He had a disability as well because he was blind. What about Ray Charles–is he dead or still alive, I am not sure.

      I can ever remember a man from Dominica, whom we called Starrett, he was not from Giraudel, but he used to spend a lot of time there with a very popular family. He was born, blind but no one could play the musical instruments like the accordion, organ, and whatever else he played.

      Some people are both deaf and blind–but that does make them inferior to those have those abilities. There so many famous people with those disabilities, and who can walk in their shoes, with their eyesight and their hearing? I could say not very many! For when God closes a door, He opens a window–I guess He did that for me!

      Ludwig Van Beethoven never heard the beautiful music which he composed so well, because he was deaf–deafness and blindness are the two most popular disability in people–but most of those people live a Life of vibrancy and gaiety–that includes myself.

      No one around me can disrespect me, because of my disability, for they see me as a person who is superior to themselves.

      • August 27, 2012

        I am sorry this message is full of typing errors, I wish there was a way I could delete the whole thing, and so I will try to correct them here.

        (1) Should read” The attitude of people, regarding disabled people to be lower than themselves”

        (2) Should read: I have a hearing disability which has been altered by a very expensive hearing aid device.

        (3) Should read: Because he was born blind (about Stevie Wonder)

        (4) Should read: “I can even remember a man from Dominica” (about Starett) “But no one could play the musical instruments, like the accordion, the organ, and whatever else he played–as well as he did”.

        (5) Should read: “Some people are both blind and deaf, but that does not make them inferior to those who do not have those disabilities”

        (6) Should read: “There are so many people”

        I am gonna have to do much better than that next time, so to avoid sending a bad one like that one above. I am sorry!

  5. August 27, 2012

    correction: President of the Dominica Association of Persons with Disabilities.

  6. Positive vibes
    August 27, 2012

    is dert!.give them their rights..some dominican people to like to them them what they want.like abuse…give the their rights!!!

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