The Temporary Thematic Group of People with Disabilities called for enhancing the situation of disabled people through implementing serious integration programs, and creating policies that focalize the special needs of this vulnerable group in Morocco.
In a recent report, the group asked for “increasing the value of the annual budget directed to public programs targeting persons with disabilities,” stressing the urgent need for improving legislative policies and public strategies focusing on people with disabilities.
The report called for establishing a legal framework for some of the basic professions related to mental health, emphasising the importance of accelerating the introduction of a comprehensive system of social support for people in a disability situation.
It also demanded ’’ the implementation of Article 6 of Law Framework 97.13 to protect and enable, and integrate into comprehensive social protection workshops people with disabilities.’’
The group called for establishing a national program to provide access to urbanisation, communication, and transportation for the independence, convenience, and safety of all people with disabilities.
The program must receive long-term funding and aim at generalising access in centralised and decentralised public facilities belonging to the public sectors and allocating seats inside buses and public halls
The group recommended “strengthening coordination mechanisms between the various stakeholders,” with the aim of ‘’achieving the required efficiency in activating and tracking government programs’’.
With regard to planning and programming, the group’s report called for activating the roles of the “ministerial committee responsible for tracking and implementing strategies and programs related to advancing the rights of people with disabilities.’’
The report also suggested ‘’ the revision of some texts that still carry some derogatory concepts, in order to keep pace with the actual requirements for improving the conditions of people with disabilities.”
Despite the promulgation of Law No. 97.13 related to the protection and advancement of the rights of disabled people, the group highlighted that it did not practically come into effect due to ‘’delays in the issuance of implementation texts of the Framework Law.’’
The document indicated that the group took into account the draft Decree No. 2-22-1075 related to granting a disabled person a card, before recommending “ expediting the activation of the aforementioned draft decree, and avoiding gradualism that may delay the issuance of the card.”
One of the most prominent recommendations included in the report is “the adoption of some positive preferential rights in social protection such as reducing the retirement age, compensating for disability, and supporting the acquisition of technical and alternative tools.
The report also called for “establishing a protocol for medical and rehabilitative care for mental disabilities,” stressing the importance of “providing sign language in judicial and prison institutions to communicate with deaf and blind people.”