Empowering persons with disability and ensuring inclusiveness and equality is this year’s theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
This year’s theme aligns with part of the 2030 agenda pledges to ‘leave no one behind’.
The Department for Community Development says today’s world population is over 7 billion, and approximately 15 percent live with some form of disability, where 80 percent of them live in developing nations.
In PNG, the estimates of people living with disabilities are 1.2 million and as life expectancy in general increases, persons with disabilities who survive in old age will also increase.
Launched on May 7th, 2015, the PNG Policy on Disability 2015-2025 aims to ‘remove barriers and make rights real’.
During the observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Community Development Division Deputy Secretary, Jeane Sliviak, outlined some of the Government’s achievements through the Ministry.
“The important one of all is the Disability Draft Authority Bill 2018,” she said.
“As I stand before you, I am very privileged to make this announcement, that for now the disability sector in PNG for the first time would have a legislation that will be the legal framework to govern the rights of persons with disability.
“Ever since independence, we have not had a legislation specific to disability.”
Sliviak said their second achievement was the successful conclusion of the reporting on the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disability workshop.
This first-ever three-day training in PNG was hosted on November 29th.
The ministry has also trained officers within the disability and the elderly section as well as participate in discussions with the APEC Group of Friends on Disability.
(Deputy Secretary for Community Development Division, Jeane Sliviak)