The rights of disabled people will be the focus of this year’s Law Week in Tonga, which starts next Monday
Acting Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions ‘Aminiasi Kefu said the aim of this year’s event would be to make the public aware of the rights of people with disabilities provided in the international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
There will be opportunities for people to discuss the obligations, benefits and challenges of applying the Convention in Tonga.
This will be the ninth year Law Week has been held.
Law Week is delivered annually as part of the celebrations of the granting of the Constitution by the late King George Tupou I on 4 November 1875.
This year it runs from November 7-11 and will include daily radio talkback shows from Radio FM 87.5 held at 5pm to 6.30pm from Monday to Friday.
Timote Solo Vaiomo’unga of the Tonga National Disability Congress said last year a lot remained to be done to provide basic services for disabled people in the kingdom, with poor access to homes and public buildings and few public facilities.
According to the Pacific Disability Forum, UNESCAP figures show that about 1,7 million people living in the Pacific have some form of disability.
Discrimination based on disability has been a particular problem in education, employment, housing, transport, cultural life and access to public places and services, a Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat report said.
The Secretariat said less than 10% of children with disabilities in the Asia Pacific region attend school. These low levels of educational attainment led to unemployment rates double that of the general population.
The main points
- The rights of disabled people will be the focus of this year’s Law Week in Tonga, which starts next Monday.
- This year’s event is aimed at making people more aware of the rights of people under the international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
- Timote Solo Vaiomo’unga of the Tonga National Disability Congress said last year a lot remained to be done to provide basic services for disabled people in the kingdom.
- According to the Pacific Disability Forum, UNESCAP figures show that about 1,7 million people living in the Pacific have some form of disability.
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