Four years after Ghana signed and passed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs), there is still discrimination and stigmatisation against PWDs. The convention is said to be the major milestone in the effort at promoting, protecting and ensuring full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of PWDs. At the launch of the campaign on the ratification of UN- Convention on PWDs, the acting Chief Psychiatrist of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the government should not only sign treaties and conventions, but also know the content of the document before giving its assent. He said measures must be put in place for the ratification of such conventions in order to protect the rights of the citizens. He said PWDs in Ghana faced lots of challenges in their daily lives, especially with societal attitudes towards them. Dr Osei appealed to the government to pass the Mental Health Bill to help define the legal and regulatory framework for mental health practice in the country. The Vice-President of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD), Mr Joseph Adu-Boampong, said the convention, when implemented, would mark an important development in the PWD's pursuit of equality. "The convention would also be the first legally binding treaty to clearly set out the obligations on states to avoid discrimination against the PWDs," he noted. He said ratification of the convention would, therefore, be a commitment on the part of the government to invest in its PWDs. The President of the Ghana Association of the Blind, Mr Offori Debra, said the convention would serve as the ultimate protection for PWDs and help in the sensitisation of positive attitudes towards PWDs. He appealed to the government to initiate the ratification of the convention in the country in order to prevent afterthoughts. He said the association would continue to advocate issues that did not receive the necessary attention from the government. The Director of Mind Freedom, Mrs Janet Amegatcher, said statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicated that by the year 2010, psycho-social disabilities would become the second largest non-communicable disease in the world. She said this should prompt the country to do what it could to prevent what the WHO has projected. Source: Daily Graphic