The launching last Wednesday of a public consultation process covering the 2021 Act on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2021 Act to amend the Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disability) Act is yet another firm salvo for the overall cause of equality and inclusion in this country.

It is, actually, a resolute way of bringing several loose ends together, towards creating a final package that will help streamline the whole legal and administrative apparatus for the complete implementation of the UN convention.

Malta signed the convention way back in 2007 and ratified it five years later. Now, in this year’s decisive phase, we are proposing the absorption into our domestic law of those rights and structures that had not yet been addressed. It has been a long and winding road across different administrations but the realisation of this project will, no doubt, seal Malta’s strict adherence to an international convention based on the rights of disabled persons as equal citizens around the world.

These steps also form an integral part of the Labour government’s long-confirmed commitment to equality and inclusion, not as perceived ideals but as real and proven beliefs.

The development and upgrading of policies and strategies aimed at implementing the UN convention will inevitably involve the Directorate for Disability Issues in the implementation process, as will the creation of a national coordination structure to rationalise this major exercise among different ministries and departments, as stakeholders dealing with issues such as accessibility.

This structure will also ensure holistic harmonisation in terms of Malta’s 2021-2030 National Strategy for the Rights of Disabled Persons and of other strategies, laws and policies that may be of a cross-cutting nature.

One breakthrough is the right of disabled persons to seek redress for discrimination- Julia Farrugia Portelli

No less important is the prerequisite that every policy, piece of legislation or practice directly or indirectly concerning the rights of disabled persons is forged within the smouldering fires of a relevant process of not only consultation but true participation, involving these same persons and the entities that represent them. The law will, in fact, see to it that a forum enabling the participation of civil society is created, styled ‘EMPOWER’.

Here, disabled persons and their organisations, academics from the Department of Disability Studies within the University of Malta and regulatory bodies, such as the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) and, eventually, the Human Rights and Equality Commission, could freely and expertly make their input in this joint national effort. The final aim is to bring to fruition issues that have no social or political boundaries to contend with.

It is only natural that the UN convention and our domestic laws carry with them Malta’s international obligations on the issue of the rights of disabled persons and the ultimate aim of all-embracing equality and inclusion. In its State Review of 2018 with regard to Malta’s implementation of the convention, the UN had referred to anomalies that still needed to be addressed, including the adoption of such legislation. In its immediate reaction, Malta had committed itself to addressing these anomalies, as we are now doing, a special moment for a country that rightly prides itself on its hard-working and steadfast commitment to a fair, just and equal society.

With the anticipated public input and the eventual implementation of the UN convention, as well as the amendments to domestic legislation on the rights of disabled persons, we feel confident the nation is on the right track. One significant breakthrough, for example, is the provision of the effective right of disabled persons to seek redress in cases of discrimination, as per the rights covered by the UN convention.

Disabled persons and their families are finally able to enjoy this right laid out in article 13 of the UN convention, thanks to a Redress Panel, and with a reformed Test of Reasonableness Board within CRPD further strengthening this right.

Standing out in this process of positive change is a transparent government role in the implementation of the UN convention as it renders this process distinct from the role of a now stronger regulatory body – CRPD – with new powers to investigate and to ensure compliance and enforcement.

Julia Farrugia Portelli, Minister for Inclusion and Social Well-being