The Minister of Social Affairs and Community Development, Sheikh Firas Al-Sabah, welcomed the agreement between the two authorities on the law on the rights of people with disabilities, pointing to work to accelerate the disbursement of prosthetic devices to those eligible and floating a tender in this regard.
In an intervention during the Council’s discussion of the report of the Committee for the Affairs of Persons with Disabilities, listed as urgent, on the draft law and proposals for laws to amend some provisions of Law 8/2010 regarding the rights of persons with disabilities, Al-Sabah said, “The report includes many features of the law, and expanded the beneficiary groups, which the law did not include her, such as the children of the Kuwaiti woman and the Kuwaiti mother in charge of the disabled, and our goal with the law is to avoid deficiencies in the law in its previous form,” reports Al-Rai daily.
He added, “There are due comments regarding the problems that the authority is suffering from, and there is an investigation committee that reviews all previous work and reviews contracts, and cases were referred to the prosecution last week on suspicion of harming public funds,” explaining that “with regard to medical committees, I had previously coordinated with the head of the parliamentary committee to develop and restore Consider forming medical committees with a different mechanism than the current one, for greater transparency.”
He stated, “There is a great legacy in the Authority, and we are working to overcome all obstacles and we are optimistic about cooperating with members of the Committee and the Council to correct any observation on the Authority’s performance.”
For his part, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for People with Disabilities, Representative Saud Al-Asfour, said that the committee’s report on the law “is the product of the work of several councils, and it amends a law that has been in effect for more than 13 years.
“Practical application has proven that there is a need to make amendments, given the negatives that occurred after the implementation of the law.
“The law affirms the commitment of the state and society to people with disabilities with the aim of empowering and caring for them.”
He stated that “the amendments affected education, employment, care and protection, which came after discussions with specialists, public benefit associations and government agencies.”
The committee’s Rapporteur, MP Hani Shams, said, “The law is important, because it concerns a group dear to us, and the amendments came after 13 years, and there are other amendments that will affect the medical committees and others during the coming period.”
He explained that “the law has undergone many amendments, and two new categories have been added to the law: the Kuwaiti mother who cares for a disabled non-Kuwaiti, so that she obtains the same benefits as the Kuwaiti mother who cares for a disabled Kuwaiti, and the Kuwaiti who is charged with caring for a disabled non-Kuwaiti, whether he is a husband, wife or “Soon to the second level.”
Shams stated, “Among the amendments is to attach schools for people with disabilities to the Ministry of Education, with the role of the Authority for People with Disabilities being supervisory and oversight, to ensure the quality of education provided and these bodies’ commitment to it.”
