Published: September 28, 2026
MONROVIA – Liberia’s draft disability rights bill would remove protections persons with disabilities have held for two decades, the Christian Association of the Blind said. According to the group, those include a 4% employment quota, three seats in the Legislature and a requirement that disabled persons or disability specialists lead the national disability commission.
By Lennart Dodoo
The group’s program coordinator, Elijah Manyon, said in a statement that the Draft National Disability Rights, Inclusion and Support Act of 2026, now under validation, would leave persons with disabilities with less protection than the 2005 law that created the National Commission on Disabilities. The association said its findings come from a section-by-section review of the 65-page, 168-section draft.
“We are calling on the government, the Legislature, and all stakeholders to close the gaps before passage,” Manyon said.
The association said the 2005 act requires the commission’s officials to be “qualified disabled persons and/or specialists in the field of disabilities.” It said the draft contains no such rule and sets no number or percentage for persons with disabilities in the leadership of the institutions created for them. It said the 2005 act’s requirement that at least 4% of employees in covered institutions be persons with disabilities is gone, as are the three legislative seats it says that law set aside. The draft offers no explanation for the changes, it said.
The group also said the draft creates new problems. It names a “Minister responsible for disability affairs” as the lead coordinating authority but does not say which ministry that is. It gives a new oversight body power to issue binding decisions enforceable as court orders, but does not say who appoints its members.
The draft bars the National Commission on Disabilities from enforcement and adjudication, the association said, while the oversight body meant to take over central enforcement may take up to six months to become operational. Courts and sectoral regulators would keep their enforcement roles, it said, but no central authority would clearly be in charge during that period.
The association said the draft has no transition provisions protecting the commission’s current staff or assets, though existing programs would continue under a transition clause. It said criminal penalties are left to future regulations, and that appeal provisions name neither a court nor a deadline.
The group also questioned the process, saying the document is being circulated and validated as a draft act before it has been introduced in the Legislature.
The association noted that the U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published its concluding observations on Liberia’s initial report on May 6, calling for stronger protections. In the group’s assessment, the draft does not yet meet that standard.
The association said it supports President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s agenda for persons with disabilities and offered its findings to strengthen the bill before it reaches lawmakers. Manyon said a bill that keeps the 2005 protections and fixes the new flaws “would stand as a landmark achievement of the Boakai administration’s inclusion agenda.”
The group said it has invited further dialogue with the drafters.
Discussion about this post