Training focuses on rights of disabled

By DULCIE OREKE
A THREE-day training programme is under way in Port Moresby to promote and protect the rights of people with disability through the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.
This would enable the government and people with disabilities to work towards meeting the requirements of the convention.
The objective of the programme is to build the capacity of disabled persons organisations, government and service providers to respond to the barriers preventing them from enjoying all their rights.
It includes the freedom from violence, abuse and the full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
Department of Community Development acting secretary Anna Solomon said in the past, the rights of people with disabilities were objects of charity or left to health authorities to concentrate on.
Solomon said they faced social problems.
“Society was the problem,” she said.
She said all sectors needed to work together to address their plight.
The outcomes sought from the meeting are to increase understanding by government representatives of the convention at national and local levels.
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat official Filipo Masaurua said Papua New Guinea signed the convention on Dec 13, 2006, but had yet to ratify it.
PNG is among five other countries in the Pacific region that have not ratified the convention.