Persons with disabilities in Abyei Administrative Area have raised their voices demanding for three seats in the administration.
“The new government should look into our issue and give us something so, we feel like members of the community,” a woman with disability living in Agok told Abyei FM on Tuesday.
The leader of the disabled union in Abyei Administrative Area, a body formed since 2010, Nyok Dau Deng said they were alienated in the previous administrations despite their abilities.
“There is someone (person with disability) who is educated… that is why I want us to be given a seat so that we become like other people,” he explained.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRDP), 2006, calls for the protection of the dignity of disabled people. Parties to the convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities.
The chief administrator of Abyei Administrative Area, Kuol Deim Kuol promised positions for the group in his yet-to-be-formed government saying, they will be represented in the Legislative Council.
“Their rights should be greater than the ones of others because they have special needs for them to live with dignity like among other citizens,’ Deim said.
He says persons with disabilities should be given special care.
“Their representation in the parliament (legislative council) is very important…their representation is basic,” he added.
The chief administrator has so many promises to fulfill with regards to representation. He is to make sure the 35 percent is given to women and youths aged from 20-35 years, according to him represented too.
But will his government accommodate every group that deserves a seat?
Well, there were more than forty political positions in the previous administrations. Last week, Mr. Deim said the formation of the new administration is being delayed by consultations being done on the size of the government in administrative areas in Juba where he was appointed in June.
He said the president of South Sudan has formed a committee to review the structure of executive organs of the three administrative areas including Abyei. It is yet to be known whether the size of the administration is going to be expanded.