The Fiji National Council for Disabled Persons (FNCDP) is in the process of reviewing the FNCDP Act 1994 in order for Fiji to ratify the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.
Fiji signed the UN Convention in June, 2010, in principal agreeing to comply with it and the next step now is the ratification of the Convention.
FNCDP executive director, Dr Sitiveni Yanuyanutawa said the FNCDP Act 1994 needed to be reviewed in order to provide a coordinating mechanism to look after disability services in Fiji.
“It is more of a historic achievement for us and we have to go to the next level from here. Hopefully, in the next two weeks, we would be able to come up with a draft legislation for disability,” Dr Yanuyanutawa said.
Dr Yanuyanutawa said during the consultation on the review of the Act, they would also look at some other legislations related to disability such as the Social Justice Act and the Employment Relations Promulgation 2007.
He added that this is the second consultation on the review of the Act with the third consultation scheduled to be held on the 27th of this month.
“When that last consultation will be completed, we will be able to put up a draft Decree for disability. Probably the draft decree will go through public consultation again and then from there, we would be able to come up with a legislation that has some teeth in it,” Dr Yanuyanutawa said.
“FNCDP Act has its own version of defining disability but all in all we are trying to put it in a more standardised way. And that definition will be captured in the draft legislation that will be prepared in the next two weeks.”
Dr Yanuyanutawa highlighted that the biggest advantage of the UN Convention is it gives a lot of power to the disabled population in Fiji.
“I know that it is not a typical Fijian mentality to be disabled. We were not really in that line of thinking but now we are coming into the spotlight and we are trying to make it fair and equal for persons with disability living in Fiji. If we can come up with a legislation that will be able to uphold their rights, i think we are providing more of a justice to them,” Dr Yanuyanutawa said.
“The new Act will have an immense impact on the lives of the people with disability as it will empower them to be able to exercise their own rights in a community which is not really aware of the importance of providing care for people with disability.”
“This legislation will give them an extra yard in trying to move forward with the challenges that we have, especially the attitudinal challenges. At the end of the day, we are trying to make them more visible in our midst,” Dr Yanuyanutawa stressed.
Meanwhile, Ms Nazhat Shameem, who is the consultant for the review of the FNCDP Act, said they are also working on defining ‘disability’ as one of the first steps of the review.
“We need to define who is a person with disability to ensure that the law targets exactly the sort of people that Fiji wants targeted,” Ms Shameem said.
The day-long consultation is attended by the 34 affiliates of the FNCDP, including 16 special school teachers, key government stakeholders such as the Ministry for Regional Development, Ministry of Health, the Social Welfare Ministry, Labour Ministry, Ministry of Justice and the National Planning Ministry as well as some civil society organisations.
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