Parliamentary Submission: The Children’s Amendment Bill doesn’t protect the rights of children with disabilities

The Children’s Amendment Bill does not sufficiently protect the rights of children with disabilities. It is silent on special care centres for learners with disabilities. These centres are NGOs or NGO-managed and accommodate learners with disabilities who are systematically excluded from schools because of their disabilities, in contravention of the Constitution of South Africa and the South African Schools Act. It is necessary for the Bill to include and define these centres and specify, inter alia, roles and responsibilities of government departments, according to their legal mandates, for the education, dignity and protection of learners and the resourcing of these centres. The current ambiguity about coordination, roles and responsibilities of departments undermines the rights of these learners to care, protection, dignity, equality and education.

The Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability made this submission to Parliament.