Urgent need for a new legislative framework for people with disabilities

Statement by AKEL MP Andros Kafkalias and Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance Committee

8 March 2022

Since 2014, when the legislation on the Minimum Guaranteed Income (MGI) was being passed, AKEL had highlighted the need to prepare separate legislation for people with disabilities, which would be in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Almost seven years after the government announced the creation of a new, separate legislation for people with disabilities, the support policies for these people are still being incorporated into MGI-type policies, with the result that people with disabilities continue to experience trouble, delays, humiliation and violation of their rights.

We reiterate that the specific needs of people with disabilities cannot be met by the MGI and benefits alone, nor by scattered legislation. A new legislative framework for people with disabilities must be drawn up, based on the needs that each disability itself creates.

The preparation and implementation of a single legislative framework will make a substantial and practical contribution to the effort to ensure dignified living conditions, to eliminate exclusion and discrimination, and to integrate them into every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

We expect the government, this time, to enter into a meaningful dialogue with the disabled people’s movement and to submit specific proposals. The Committee on Labour, Welfare and Social Security will come back to the issue in two months’ time to assess the whole situation.