A call has been made to the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) to urgently make accessible formats of provisions of a draft Bill which tackles discrimination against persons with disabilities and creates new mechanisms for dispute resolution for them.
Protagonists say full details of the Bill must be made available to persons with disabilities and their allies so that the new legislation truly reflects a society in which equality before the law is embedded – not just in the law itself but also within the law reform process.
The call was made in a statement by Professor Willene Holness of UKZN’s School of Law and Ms Liza Aziz, a founding member of Action in Autism and a member of the Presidential Working Group on Disability.
Holness, also a disability activist and member of the Navi Pillay Research Group, said to date no accessible formats had been provided and there had been inadequate publicity of the draft Bill on public radio or television resulting in most persons with disabilities being unaware of developments. ‘The extension of the deadline for submissions from the public without accessible formats of the Bill and adequate publicity pays lip-service to the rights of persons with disabilities to self-representation. In the meantime, they suffer daily indignities and transgressions of their rights with their autonomy and dignity negated.’
In October this year, the SALRC called for input on the discussion paper for the creation of disability specific legislation, the Promotion and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Bill, that seeks to serve the rights of persons with disabilities and their allies who include parents of persons with disabilities, civil society and disabled persons organisations.
Said Holness: ‘The South African Law Reform Commission is mandated to draft new law or amend existing legislation and has sought to put forward a framework of law that will ensure that the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPD) are domesticated. South Africa ratified the UNCPD in 2007 and it has thus taken 17 years to start the process of domesticating the state’s obligations towards persons with disabilities.
‘The passing of this Bill into law will furthermore require alignment of other existing legislation which currently negates the rights of persons with disabilities.’
Holness said there had been no “easy-to-read” version of the Bill for persons with disabilities, including intellectual, psychosocial and neurodevelopmental disability, despite repeated requests for such an accessible format of the proposed legislation and the discussion paper to be made available. “The discussion paper is written in legal jargon and is therefore inaccessible to most people. The South African National Blind Society had to request the SALRC to provide a braille version of the Bill to persons with visual impairment who require the format. There is no audio version or sign language and captioned version of the discussion paper and Bill available either.”
In addition, there has been no widespread dissemination of the discussion paper to all in society, including and specifically targeting persons with disabilities and disabled persons’ organisations.
At an engagement and dialogue session hosted on 16 November at UKZN’s School of Law, an attempt was made to break down the discussion paper, the draft Bill and the legal process into digestible chunks, to allow autistic persons, their parents and civil society members to seek understanding of the discussion paper and make input. ‘At this dialogue it emerged that the law reform process was fraught with challenges, including no accessible versions of the Bill being available and the tight turnaround time,’ said Holness.
At a consultative meeting hosted on the digital platform by the SALRC, it was clearly articulated by civil society representatives and disabled persons organisations that a reasonable extension of the deadline was required, especially since accessible formats were not provided.
Words: NdabaOnline
Photograph: Supplied
