Disability rights campaigner says global day is ‘significant’ for Montserrat

An advocate for disabled people in Montserrat has said this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “particularly significant”.

Harjinder Jutle, president of the Montserrat Association for Persons with Disabilities, said the global event coincides with the work being done to finalise the island’s long term disability strategy.

“This is a really important moment for the island and will help overcome some of the difficulties we had in the early days of the CIPREG programme,” she said in a statement on 3 December.

CIPREG or Capital Investment for Resilience Economic Growth is a £40 million Montserrat-specific programme funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

It was launched in 2019 with an aim to enable economic growth and encourage private sector development, and was approved for the new national hospital, parliament building and the subsea fibre project.

“The views of people with disabilities were not taken seriously back then and the consultations on tourism, access, web design and building design came to nothing,” Jutle said.

“One meeting on the hospital was followed by two years of silence.

“Progress was dependent on the goodwill of individual civil servants and contractors, or the requirements of funders, and there is still a lot of work needed around education and employment.”

However, she said, a clear policy framework is now being put in place so Montserrat should be able to ensure that its future development will be fully inclusive.

Earlier this year Bermuda became the first UK overseas territory to have the UN Convention on Disability Rights extended to it.

“It was an inspirational moment, and hopefully Montserrat is now on the same path,” Jutle said.

“In the meantime we should take the time to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of persons with disabilities.”