The National Union of Organizations of the Disabled (NUOD), in partnership with Sight Savers International, is calling the George Manneh Weah-led Government’s attention to the pro-disabled persons’ International dignity-promotion Protocols that Liberia has been ignoring.
Founded in 1995, NUOD is an umbrella body for individual disabled persons and organizations not directly covered under the Government’s welfare programs for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
The Government’s welfare package focuses only on members of the Group of 77 (directly under the office of Liberia’s Vice President, Jewel Howard Taylor), through the National Commission on Disability (NCD), headed by Madam Daintowon Pay-Bayee.
The Sightsavers is an international organization that works in more than 30 countries to prevent avoidable blindness and fight for the rights of people with disabilities.
Its vision is a world where no one is blind from avoidable causes, and where people with disabilities can participate equally in society.
The NUOD-Sightsavers collaborative meeting was held on July 28, 2023, at NUOD’s head office on 9th Street, Sinkor, Monrovia.
“Our attention has been drawn to the importance of the African Disability Protocol and the Inclusive Data Charter sign-up which, unfortunately, has not been signed by the Government of Liberia, unlike our sister African Countries,” NUOD president, visually impaired Pastor Peter M. K. Flomo, said during his reading on Braille (reading pad for visually impaired persons) to a body of Journalists to relay the information to the Government.
The NUOD president admitted that Liberia signed and ratified the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2007 and 2012 respectively. “Unfortunately, the Optional Protocol to the UNCRPD has not been domesticated and ratified in Liberia since 2007 and 2013,” he added.
He said the 54 (current) members’ affixing their signatures to the UNCRPD will “demonstrate Liberia being a truly democratic nation and a founding member of the United Nations, the Economic Community of West African States, and the African Union.”
He also spoke about the Liberian Government’s failure on the creation of three seats in the National Legislature for the Country’s disabled community, which, he stressed, is in violation of the Act that established the National Commission on Disability (NCD) by the Legislature on November 23, 2005.
“In this regard, we are also asking President George Manneh Weah for his fullest support to achieve the aims and objectives of citizens with disabilities on signing of these global and African Protocols,” he said.
The NUOD leader also expressed his Institution’s crave for the Liberian Government, through the office of the President, to initiate an Executive Order for the immediate ratification of the Liberian Legislative Act that talks about three Legislative seats for PWDs in the National Legislature.
He said four members of NUOD will travel to America in September 2023 to represent the Union and Liberia’s disabled community, at a high-level Summit on PWDs across the World.
The conclusion part of his statement relayed NUOD’s appeal to the Office of President Weah to take people with disabilities from “slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.”
In its press release, delivered through its Country Director, Balla Musa Joof, Sightsavers said: “A new 100-day campaign has been launched, calling for action to protect global disability rights, ahead of a high-level summit on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September.”
“As the World is coming to the highway point of 2030 deadline, progress on the SGDs has derailed—they are completely off-track. The promise to leave no one behind, a Mantra of the UN, is in peril,” the Sightsavers Country Director added.
“We are calling on the Government of Liberia and all world leaders to speed up action on the SDGs and make sure they are inclusive of people with disabilities,” Joof said.
Speaking specifically to the Liberian Government, the global pro-PWD advocacy group said: “We are also calling on the Government of Liberia to ratify the African Disability Protocol and to mobilize political commitments and meaningful actions to advance inclusive and disaggregated data set-up.”
