Parliament yesterday debated whether the National Commission Persons with Disability would be better as an independent institution or one falling under the control of Parliament.
The debate arises from two bills amending the Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disabilities) Act, linked to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The parties to the Convention, including Malta, are required to protect, promote and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality.
Paris Principles contain two requirements for independence
The Convention has been a major catalyst for persons with disabilities to be treated as full and equal members of society with human rights. Part of Article 33 of the Convention requires an independent ‘framework, including one or more independent mechanisms, as appropriate, to promote, protect and monitor implementation’, based on the so-called Paris Principles. These are guidelines for the national body created to promote and monitor human rights – in Malta’s case the National Commission Persons with Disability.
The Paris Principles contain two specific requirements to ensure independence: that the institution must be provided with the necessary infrastructure, particularly adequate funding; and that its members’ appointments should be stable, making government interference less likely.
The debate was instigated after Stephen Spiteri (PN) presented a private member’s bill seeking to re-establish the National Commission Persons with Disability as an office of Parliament, independent from the Executive. The commission would be appointed by the President following a parliamentary resolution supported by the votes of at least two-thirds of the MPs. According to the Opposition, this procedure would guarantee the autonomy of the Commission. It criticised the proposal presented by government that the commission’s chairman should be appointed by the Prime Minister.
Another bill was presented by government, seeking to restructure the National Commission Persons with Disability (KNPD) as the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability, to be chaired by the Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability. The bill of rights set out in the Convention are included in the bill.
The government stressed that it has nearly completed the setting up of an independent human rights commission, answerable to Parliament and independent of government. The government believes that this structure would resolve the conflict arising from the current roles of the KNPD as regulator and service provider, as the services would be gradually transferred to Sapport.
It argued yesterday that this was a more effective way to ensure that persons with disabilities were not marginalised – as it feared with the Opposition’s proposal.