Director of the Dominica Association of People with Disabilities (DAPD), Nathalie Murphy, has revealed that the organization is still waiting on word from the Ministry of Social Services in regard to the formation of a National Disability Council.
Murphy, at a press conference earlier this week, noted that Dominica ratified the UN Convention on the rights of People with Disabilities approximately one year ago, however very little has been done since then.
“The ratification by Dominica of the convention was to be followed locally by the establishment of a National Disability Council. After 4 to 5 months we had not heard anything, we wrote to government, the Ministry of Social Services in particular, inquiring the status of this council and that was in January, and we were told that they were in the process of putting it together and they would contact us eventually,” she said.
She added that to date, the DAPD has not heard from the Ministry in that regard.
“We have not heard from them but what we have done is to write again offering our services and assistance in helping to put this disability council together because it is not only putting the council together, you have to give the council work to do. We are waiting on the minister’s response,” she pointed out.
Murphy noted, however, that although the council has not yet been implemented, some progress has been made in terms of access. She said that consideration is being given to people with disabilities by those who recently erected buildings, drawing particular reference to the newly-constructed Dominica State College which was built to accommodate such people. She indicated that one visually impaired student is presently enrolled there.
The DAPD director said she looks forward to reporting that a plan of action has been implemented within the next year.
“Based on the terms of reference that the council would have been given we would like to report that we have a plan of action that we are implementing. We would like to look at some of the laws that may be discriminatory, we would also like to see a National Disability Act being formulated and taken to parliament because after 2 years of implementation Dominica has to report to the United Nations on the progress that it has made so far,” she said.
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