Monday, 19th September, 2022 (1)

Monday, 19th September, 2022
DAILY ANALYST
Page 7
PWDs calls for amendment of Disability Act
“We have women with
disability who go to seek
sexual reproductive
healthcare services when
they are pregnant and
are given wrong medications
and the foetuses in their wombs
are aborted simply because the
doctors cannot communicate to
them in accessible forms.”
Mr Alexander Bankole Williams,
Chairman of the Advocacy
Committee of the Ghana Federation
of Disability Organisations
(GFD), said whiles narrating the
ordeals of persons living with
disabilities in Ghana.
At a press conference in Accra
on Thursday, the GFD called on
the Government to expedite the
amendment of the Disability Act,
2006 (Act 715) to promote and
protect the rights of PWDs in the
country.
The Federation argued that
the law, in its current form, was
fraught with inadequacies and
did not conform to the dictates of
the UN Convention of the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities
GIS boss charged
officers to be
committed to duty
Mr. Kwame Asuah
Takyi, Comptroller-General
of the
Ghana Immigration
Service (GIS)
has charged officers of the Service
to be committed to duty in
ensuring the safety and security
of the country’s borders.
He implored the officers to be
disciplined, exhibit high level of
professionalism in the discharge
their duties to ensure that security
was tightened along the
borders and be alert of issues of
terrorism.
Mr Takyi said these on the
sideline of the President’s tour of
the Volta region to interact with
the officers at the Regional Command
to encourage them and to
listen to their concerns.
The Comptroller-General
entreated personnel to work hard
to uplift the image of the Service
and should avoid any conduct
that would dent the image of the
service.
Mr. Takyi observed some
visible infrastructural challenges
at the Command during the
interaction and urged the officers
to always ensure maintenance
(CRPD), ratified by Ghana in 2012.
The Federation argued that
Act 715 did not have any provision
on specific rights of children and
women with disabilities or any
relevant measures to deal with
their issues.
They said although Section
6 and 7 of the Act talked about
accessibility to the built environment
as well as goods and
services, the law had no Legislative
Instrument to spell out
the details regarding how those
rights ought to be accessed.
“It has no detail on the
specific right to life of persons
with disability particularly in a
country like Ghana where the
lives of children are being taken
away because they are born with
certain categories of disabilities,”
Mr Williams said.
“Our lives are not worth living.
It is too depressing to live
as a person with Disability in
Ghana,” he lamented.
Act 715 was passed by Parliament
on June 23, 2006 and reculture.
The Comptroller- General
expressed his extreme desire to
work assiduously to facilitate the
provision of more infrastructural
projects and reduce logistical
constraints through the corridors
of power.
He reiterated his occupational
desire to address concerns
of “affected officers who may
have respectively, experienced
an ‘error in judgment’ on unique
and identifiable cases; to petition
through the administrative channels
for redress.”
Mr. Takyi commended the
officers for their diligence and
hard work during the outbreak of
the novel coronavirus in protecting
the borders and ensuring
the safety and security of the
country.
Deputy Commissioner of Immigration,
Mr. Michael Kwadede,
Volta Regional Commander
thanked the Comptroller-General
for visit and wise counsel.
He said the officers were prepared
and working efficiently to
ensure effective management of
the borders.
ceived the assent of the President
on August 9, 2006.
The CRPD defines PWDs as
people who have physical or
sensory impairments that, when
combined with other obstacles,
prevent them from fully and effectively
participating in society
on an equal footing with others.
In Ghana, PWDs form eight
per cent translating to 2,098,138
of the population, according to
the 2021 Population and Housing
Census.
The census data indicates
that the percentage of the Ghanaian
population over the age of 65
years is 3.14 per cent (approximately
967,000 people).
Ms Mawunyo Yakor Dagbah,
National President, GFD, said the
Federation was available to provide
technical support towards
the re-enactment of Act 715.
“The disability movement
Let’s be Cybersecurity conscious
– CSA urges Ghanaians
The Cyber Security Authority
(CSA), the agency whose mandate
it is to regulate cybersecurity
in the country, has called
on Ghanaians to be cybersecurity
conscious amid recent
global cyber incidents that have
negatively affected individuals,
businesses, and other critical
information infrastructure.
Speaking at the media launch
of the National Cybersecurity
Awareness Month in Accra on
Wednesday, September 14, 2022,
the acting Director General of
the Authority, Dr. Albert Antwi-
Boasiako, said with the advancement
in modern technology and
the wide use of the internet,
cybercriminals have leveraged
the benefits of the internet to
carry out their activities more
covertly, thereby causing harm
to individuals and businesses in
the cruellest manner.
“While digitalisation is
bringing remarkable economic
and societal benefits to majority
of the global population, it is
worth noting that these technologies,
irrespective of the opportunities
they create, have inherent
risks such that when taken
advantage of by cybercriminals,
could have detrimental effects
on individuals, enterprises, soci-
will not countenance any delays
whatsoever so far as the process
of the amendment is concerned
as a simple review and subseeties,
and nations at large.
“Studies have shown that,
an increasing reliance on the
Internet has created more risks
and vulnerabilities and opened
up new possibilities for criminal
activity. The Global Risks
Reports 2022 indicates that
cybersecurity threats are growing;
malware and ransomware
attacks increased by 358% and
435% respectively in 2020. The
report also ranked cyber-attacks
as the seventh most likely and
eighth most impactful risk
facing businesses globally,” Dr.
Antwi-Boasiako said.
He said the rise in cybercrimes
globally has led the
Authority to intensify public
awareness and enhance publicprivate
sector understanding of
cybersecurity regulations, hence,
the reason behind its National
Cyber Security Awareness Month
(NCSAM).
The NCSAM, institutionalized
in October 2018 is the leading
event within the cybersecurity
space that seeks to educate
children, the public, businesses,
and government stakeholders on
cyber hygiene best practices.
This year’s celebration, under
the theme; “Regulating Cybersecurity:
A Public-Private Sector
quent amendment of Act 715 has
taken over ten years to get to this
point,” she said.
Collaborative Approach” will
help build synergies among all
relevant stakeholders to ensure
compliance with cybersecurity
regulations.
On her part, Deputy Minister
for Communications and Digitalisation,
Ama Pomaa Boateng
said though government has put
in place appropriate measures
for the attainment of a reliable
and robust digital economy,
the digital space is still prone
to varying cyberattacks which
must be a concern for all. She
said fighting cybercrime is a
collective responsibility and that
is why government is leading an
all-hands-on-deck approach to
combating the menace.
Touching on the need for the
public and private sector to collaborate
on the fight, Chief Executive
Officer of the Ghana Chamber
of Telecommunications, Dr.
Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, urged all
stakeholders to participate fully
in the month-long event. He said
for the awareness programme
to achieve its desired outcome,
the public and private sector,
faith-based organizations, Civil
Society Organizations (CSOs) and
the media should come on board
and educate its members on
cybersecurity.