Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - Paraguay (Ratification: 1991)

The Committee notes the Government’s report received in March 2006 containing information on the adoption of Act No. 2479 of 2004, which makes it compulsory to hire persons with disabilities in public institutions with 50 or more administrative officials. Such institutions are called upon to employ 2 per cent of persons with disabilities among their administrative officials. The beneficiaries of these measures are those with a minimum level of disability of 40 per cent, as certified by the National Institute for the Protection of Persons with Special Needs (INPRO). The Government once again indicates in its report that there is no national plan or policy on vocational rehabilitation to promote the employment opportunities of persons with disabilities on the open labour market. The INPRO has only issued 211 disability certificates, and reliable statistics are not available for examination. In these circumstances, the Committee encourages the Government to give priority to the adoption of all the necessary measures for the establishment of a national rehabilitation and employment plan which takes fully into account all the provisions of the Convention. It also recalls that Article 5 of the Convention requires consultations with the representative organizations of employers and workers and of persons with disabilities. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information in its next report, which is due in 2009, on the action taken to give effect to Act No. 2479 and to make progress in practice in the application of this Convention.