Protect visually impaired from abuse
The Executive Director of the Ghana Blind Union (GBU), Dr Peter Obeng Asamoa, has called on the government to put in appropriate measures to enable persons with vision disabilities (PWVDs) to gain access to justice.
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He said the government should charge the human rights and law enforcement agencies, to do more to protect the rights of the blind and partially sighted.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Dr Asamoa said blind and partially sighted persons were discriminated against at all levels of society, and appealed to the government to do more to help integrate them into the society.
Dr Asamoa said, in particular, the union was demanding equal access to justice from the government and asked that the needs of the physically challenged must be factored into decision and policy making as well as their implementation.
Survey
According to Dr Asamoa, a survey carried out in four districts in the North by the GBU showed that over 70 per cent of PWVDs were abused.
He named the districts as Kassena-Nankana, Talensi Nandom, Gonja East and Tamale.
The abuse rate was higher among women, he said, adding that a large number of blind women were victims of sexual abuse.
While urging individuals who provided services to PWVDs as well as family members to always take their peculiar circumstances into consideration, Dr Asamoa advised PWVDs to report cases of abuse to the authorities for the law to deal with perpetrators.
He called on the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to educate the public on the risks associated with abuse of PWVDs, in order to save them from rampant abuse.
He urged them to extend support to the PWVDs and protect their rights.
Appeal
Dr Asamoa urged the government to provide appropriate facilities for PWVDs in public institutions such as the courts.
He pointed out, for instance, that PWVDs could not read court notices because none was written in braille.
Dr Asamoa called on library authorities to also consider visually impaired students when providing library facilities and appealed to the government and philanthropists to provide them with braille materials and an embosser to print textbooks for visually impaired students to enhance their studies.
