Pay delay frustrates disabled community
More than one year after the government passed legislation to bring in a pension for people with disabilities living in poverty, a preliminary committee to workshop how to locate such disabled people has still not been formed, officials said yesterday. ... In June last year, the government enacted a sub-decree to support “poor persons with disabilities”, which would entitle disabled persons living below the poverty line to between 10,000 and 20,000 riel [US$2.50 and $5] monthly stipends. ... However, too much drafting and policy work, and not enough action was a source of disappointment among the disabled community, Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation Executive Director Ngin Saorath said. ... He said that while the government had received praise for parliament deciding to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, this decision needed to be passed through the senate to the King, and back down to parliament, which would then send the decision to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before ratification was complete.
