Persons with Disabilities Act needs review

THE Malaysian Bar is dismayed that persons with disabilities continue to face significant challenges in exercising basic rights even though a decade has passed since the coming into force of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 (PWD Act).

The PWD Act was enacted to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which Malaysia is a state party. While it was a significant step forward to uphold the rights of persons with disabilities, the PWD Act is neither comprehensive nor sufficiently inclusive. The Act only incorporates selected objectives from the convention, and its relatively narrow language does not adopt the Convention’s intent.

Ten years on, the Malaysian Bar continues to call on the government to review the PWD Act. The Act as it stands is marred with omissions, including the lack of provisions prohibiting discrimination against disabled persons; the absence of provisions for judicial penalties for parties who don’t comply with the Act; and an express exclusion of the government from being sued for any wrongdoing.

These concerns must be addressed to strengthen the Act. The aim of such a review should always be to ensure its effectiveness in achieving the objectives of providing rehabilitation, self-development, and self-reliance of persons with disabilities, and to enable their integration into mainstream society.

The time for a holistic review of the PWD Act is at hand, and the Malaysian Bar stands ready to lend its expertise to assist the government to make the necessary amendments to the PWD Act as soon as possible.