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    • UNESCAP-APCD High-level Stakeholders' Workshop
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  • Newsletter 21
  • 2008 (volume 22 - 24)
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Interview Corner

Sri Lanka: Ms. Maheswary Velautham, Advisor to the Hon. Minister, Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare

I was also involved in the drafting of disability human rights, I have fought for the human rights of persons with disabilities and social justice. For me, all human beings belong to one human family. So when we drafted the local disability rights bill, we looked at the Draft Convention of the United Nations, the South African Law, India and various countries' laws before drafting our own. Due to the workload of the legal draft in parliament, it is not yet completed. I think we are hoping to submit it to the 62th UN General Assembly; I think our Minister will visit with the President of Sri Lanka at the 62th General Assembly. We are trying to push it through because all the papers are ready. Anyway, I have asked our UNESCAP members here whether we still need more to be in line with the Convention. Hopefully in a month, it will be done. We will try as much as possible. After it is passed by parliament, then we will submit it to the United Nations because we would like to ratify the Convention. We are hoping to do that by this September.

This Workshop is really good. We are trying to do maximize our efforts for the quality of life of persons with disabilities. APCD has done much with NGOs, but we didn't know that APCD has done many training programs for people in our NGOs in Sri Lanka. We need APCD technical assistance and various other facilities to improve the living conditions of persons with disabilities in Sri Lanka. As government, we have the power to make it happen. I think we are making progress and are keen to have APCD and UNESCAP involved. This is first time for me to make contact with APCD and UNESCAP; we can do more if they're willing to initiate.