Kumasi, Sept 15, GNA - The Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled (GSPD), on Monday urged Government to ratify the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention, which came into force in May last year, recognises the rights of people with disabilities to education, health, work, self-representation and participation in governance.

Mr Joseph Adu Boampong, National President of the GSPD, who made the call at a press conference in Kumasi, said the UN Convention made it mandatory for authorities to ensure that people with disabilities had access to public transport, buildings and other facilities. He said the Convention if ratified, would impose a commitment on Ghana to invest in people with disabilities and acknowledge the need to move away from charity-based to human-rights approach to disability issues.

Mr Boampong said "By so doing, the physically challenged would be empowered to improve their living conditions." He said it was estimated that 5.5 per cent of Ghana's population suffered from one form of disability or the other and mentioned hearing, vision, mental and movement defects.

Mr Boampong said the Convention was "a major milestone in efforts to promote, protect and ensure that the rights and freedoms of those with physical disabilities are respected."

He said that disability did not connote inability and investment in people with impairments could be more productive. Mr Boampong said such people should also be considered as useful partners in development and must not be despised and discriminated against.