Raising Awareness among Key Stakeholders

5. Organize seminars for professional stakeholders

Persons with disabilities are not the only key stakeholders who can contribute to effective implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Rights and Protection Act, 2013 (DPRA). Lawyers, judges, teachers, journalists, researchers, businesspersons, human rights activists and many other members of civil society have important roles to play. But many members of civil society are unaware of the DRPA. Seminars, interactive dialogues, and roundtable discussions, especially when they are chaired by leaders in a field, are excellent ways to introduce professional groups to the DRPA and to explain their role in contributing to its implementation.

The experience of USAID’s EPD program has been that professionals who attend events organized by DPOs are impressed by DPO leaders’ knowledge of the law. Many professionals who are not familiar with DPOs may wrongly assume that persons with disabilities are not well-organized or that they rely on the charity of others. But when DPOs act as resource persons on the DRPA for professionals, their perspective about DPOs’ capacity can change drastically. In this way, DPOs can strengthen their relationships with these groups and lay a foundation for future collaboration.

Additional Links: USAID Bangladesh • BlueLaw International

This website is made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-388-A-17-00005. The contents are the sole responsibility of BlueLaw International and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of USAID or the U.S. Government.

This domain was previously home to a joint report by NGDO, NCDW, and BLAST entitled “Current Status of Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Bangladesh: Legal and Grassroots Perspectives 2015,” produced with funding from the Disability Rights Fund. It is now available here.