The Government of Ghana has nominated advocacy advisor, Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame as its candidate for the United Nations Expert Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The Committee is a body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the States Parties. It also has authority to examine individual complaints about violations of the Convention. The Committee meets in Geneva twice a year.
Candidates are nominated and elected by State Parties. Ms. Fefoame’s nomination to the committee of which election is slated for June 14, 2018, in New York, comes at a time when there are global calls for fairer representation of Women on United Nation Treaty Boards. The previous committee election resulted in only one woman being appointed to the 18-member group.
If successful, Madam Gertrude, who is visually impaired, will bring not only extensive knowledge of issues around disability and development but personal experience of being a woman living with disability in a developing country.
At an event to announce her nomination on the sidelines at the ongoing sixty-second United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62), the Minister for Gender Children and Social Protection rallied for support to ensure Madam Gertrude gets elected.
She called on other state parties to vote for Ghana’s nominee as she possesses the right attitude, skills, and knowledge to serve on the committee.
Madam Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame said challenges faced by women and girls with disabilities make us lose out in all aspects; health, education, justice. So if we are able to address these issues, we can develop a better world where no one will be left behind.
Madam Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame currently works as the Global advocacy advisor at Sightsavers.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com|Asamoah Regina|New York.
