The Ghana Federation of Disability (GFD) on Friday withdrew from a protest by some Civil Society Organizations calling for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill.
The CSOs hit the street on Friday clad in red to demand action on the bill but according to the Ghana Federation of Disability (GFD), the bill excludes persons with disability.
The National President of the federation, Mawunyo Yakor-Dagbah in a Citi News interview said: “there was no way I could support the cause since the bill was not inclusive enough.”
He said the current bill, although states that persons in vulnerable groups are to be protected, persons with disability are not explicitly protected.
“Since they started implementing that law that they have been considering women with disability so if we don’t make these inputs now and we leave it to the implementers, we will be left out,” he said.
He added that although they submitted their inputs to make the bill more comprehensive, it was rejected because it was deemed voluminous.
A directive from the federation to its members ahead of the demonstration said, “Disabled people’s organisations cannot support any advocacy for passage of a bill that excludes persons with disabilities as per the substance of the bill. What are women afraid of in fully including persons with disabilities in the bill?… Inclusive Affirmative Action Bill is needed.”
The federation is made up of organizations such as the Ghana Blind Union, Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled, Ghana National Association of the Deaf, Ghana Association of Albinism, ShareCare Ghana (a group of people with auto-immune and neurological disorders), Inclusion Ghana (a group of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities), Mental Health Society of Ghana, Ghana Stammering Association, Burn Survivors Foundation.
