Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - Mali (Ratification: 1995)

Articles 1–3 of the Convention. National policy on vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. In reply to the previous comments, the Government indicates in its report that the process of the adoption of the Bill on the social protection of persons with disabilities was interrupted due to the institutional and security crisis experienced by the country in 2012. The President of the Republic has since ordered the preparation of a paper on a strategic plan for the protection of persons with disabilities. The process of the preparation of the ten-year strategic plan (2014–23), launched by the Ministry of Solidarity, Humanitarian Action and the Reconstruction of the North, gave rise to the holding of two workshops to examine and validate the preliminary report. The Committee looks forward to examining the progress achieved in the implementation in law and practice of a national policy on vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. The Committee once again invites the Government to provide information on the impact of the measures adopted on the integration into the labour market of workers with disabilities, and to provide statistics, studies and inquiries concerning the matters covered by the Convention.

Article 4. Equality of opportunity and treatment. The Government, among the measures adopted to ensure equality of opportunity, refers to: the adoption of a national health policy, which includes provision for persons with disabilities; the implementation of a national policy on special education; and the establishment of a national directorate of pre-school and special teaching for the promotion and protection of the rights of children with disabilities. The Committee further notes that a module on inclusive education has been developed by the NGO, Handicap International, in collaboration with the Mali Federation of Associations of Persons with Disabilities (FEMAPH), and that it will be introduced into the initial training for trainees in teacher training institutes as from the 2014–15 school year. The Committee also notes that, in the context of the collaboration between the Ministry of the Public Service and the FEMAPH, between 1997 and 2012, a total of 310 young graduates with disabilities, including 119 women and 191 men, were integrated into the public service. The Committee invites the Government to continue providing information on the practical measures adopted or envisaged to ensure equality of opportunity between workers with disabilities and workers in general, and between men and women workers with disabilities.

Article 5. Consultation of the social partners. The Government indicates that the FEMAPH has participated in various initiatives, such as the 2009 and 2010 workshops to monitor the implementation of the recommendations made during the 2007 national workshop on the employment of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the strategic plan for the protection of persons with disabilities and its logical framework are both in the process of being developed with the collaboration of the FEMAPH. With regard to the consultation of the representative organizations of employers and workers, the Government indicates that this is carried out within the framework of the Higher Labour Council. The Committee invites the Government to continue providing information on the implementation of the recommendations adopted by workshops in which representative organizations of persons with disabilities are involved. It invites the Government to provide information on the activities of the Higher Labour Council in the field of the vocational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.

Article 7. Services accessible to persons with disabilities. The Government reports the various modules envisaged in the training programme of the National Training Institute for Social Workers (INFTS). The Committee notes that the National Directorate of Social Development is being called on increasingly to supervise standards for the construction of ramps in private establishments. In this respect, the Committee notes the guidance provided in March 2014 by the National Director of Urban Planning and Habitat, through a circular, on the attention to be paid to ramps and all other means of access to infrastructure for persons with disabilities, as well as awareness-raising action. The Committee invites the Government to describe any other measures adopted or envisaged with a view to the provision and evaluation of vocational guidance services and vocational training for all persons with disabilities of whatever type.

Article 8. Accessible services in rural areas and remote communities. The Government indicates that, due to difficulties in mobilizing resources, only three of the seven components of the National Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme have begun to be implemented. It nevertheless reports the implementation of several activities, including: the re-examination of the documents establishing and governing the operation of the National Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme; the implementation of an awareness-raising campaign throughout the national territory; the training of the various actors; the establishment of local community-based rehabilitation committees; and the training of 300 socio-sanitary agents on the community-based rehabilitation strategy. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the impact of the measures adopted or envisaged to ensure the establishment of vocational rehabilitation and employment services for persons with disabilities in rural areas and remote communities.

Article 9. Suitably qualified staff. The Committee once again invites the Government to indicate the measures adopted or envisaged to ensure the availability of suitably qualified vocational rehabilitation staff.