10 March 2020, New Delhi
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| Sh. TD Dhariyal making his suggestions |
Mr. T. D. Dhariyal, Director, Centre for Accessibility in Built Environment participated as one of the two foreign experts for consultation and guidance to the “Promise 51 Workshop & Consultation to Enhance the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” (PP51) held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 6 – 7 March 2020 at the invitation of the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism & Human Rights (MCCHR), the Project Law Strike Force. MCCHR is a body of lawyers for National Expert Consultations and Drafting of Model Laws for Human Rights Reforms in Malaysia.
Mr. Nagase Osamu, Visiting Professor, Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, Japan was the other international expert invited for this important consultation by Malaysia.
The MCCHR aims to bring about broader pro-human rights changes in society and within the Malaysian law through strategic litigation on selected areas of human rights; freedom of expression & peaceful assembly, right to fair trial, equality and non-discrimination, freedom of religion and protection of human rights defenders. It also provides strategic litigation training workshops to law students, pupils-in-chamber and lawyers on a regular basis.
The Workshop brought together the eminent lawyers, the experts, DPOs and CSOs to discuss cases of violations of the rights of persons with disabilities and to review amendments to the existing law of 2008.
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| Group Photo of participants on Day 2 |
Shri Dhariyal strongly suggested to harmonise the Malaysian Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 with UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and gave specific examples from the judgements passed by him as the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Delhi during his tenure that ended on 31st Dec 2019. The audience was quite impressed by the orders and Suo Motu cases taken up by Sh. Dhariyal for enforcement of the India's Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and raising awareness of the government machinery and other stakeholders to implement the mandate of the law in true spirit. Various suggestions made by Mr. Dhariyal to harmonise the Malaysian Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 with CRPD was very well received and the audience was quite impressed by his orders passed during by him while holding the Office of the Court of State Commissioner for Persons With Disabilities, Delhi, that were cited as case studies.
Mr. Dhariyal was earlier invited by Malaysian Council for Rehabilitation to guide them and the Disability Law Reform group and make a presentation and engage in Q and A at a forum to generate an evidence base to support review of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2008 in December 2019.
