THE Malaysian Bar is dismayed that persons with disabilities continue to face significant challenges in exercising basic rights even though a decade has passed since the coming into force of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 (PWD Act).
The PWD Act was enacted to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which Malaysia is a state party. While it was a significant step forward to uphold the rights of persons with disabilities, the PWD Act is neither comprehensive nor sufficiently inclusive. The Act only incorporates selected objectives from the convention, and its relatively narrow language does not adopt the Convention’s intent.
