Nay Lin Soe said that this promise was made when he met with members of nine groups of disabled persons, chairman Thura Aye Myint of the Lower House Sports, Culture and Public Relation Development Committee, and chairman Thura Aung Ko of the Lower House Judiciary and Legal Committee, at the Lower House Compound in Nay Pyi Taw on July 30.

“We discussed about many points: to promulgate a Myanmar “Disability Rights Law” as soon as possible; to make sure that the (related) policies being established have to be the ones that disabled people need; and to always think about the welfare of the disabled people whenever any kind of law is promulgated,” he told Mizzima.

Starting from 2011, the Social Welfare Department began drafting the “Disability Rights Law” in cooperation with a group of international jurists and a group on disability affairs on behalf of the disabled people. Nay Lin Soe said that he would be trying to put forward the bill to coming parliamentary sessions.

Disabled persons want this law to be promulgated as soon as possible, and the chairpersons of the parliamentary committees promised that they would help in doing it quickly, according to Nay Lin Soe.

“The weak point of not having ‘Disability Rights Law’ is that we have no way to protect disabled persons when they are in need. When the law has once been promulgated, we will be able to protect them as the law stands”, he said.

Some of the nine groups of disabled persons are Myanmar Independent Living Initiative (Myanmar- ILI), Myanmar Disabled Peoples’ Organization, Myanmar Deaf Community (Yangon), Action Aid Myanmar, Eden Centre for Disabled Children (ECDC), Family Support Network, and Myanmar Autism Association.