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Draft legislation for the disability discrimination law should be completed by the end of this March, it was revealed during a scrutiny hearing.
The public hearing was held yesterday to look into the progress of the Disability & Inclusion Strategy which was passed by the States five years ago.
It saw two panels interviewed, one of senior members from the Guernsey Disability Alliance, and one of politicians and States Officers involved with the strategy.
One of those politicians was President of Employment & Social Security Deputy Michelle Le Clerc (pictured above), who said the timeline for the discrimination law means it is likely to go before the States in the second quarter of 2019, with hopes of it being in force before the next election in April 2020.
The law itself is being worked on by two overseas experts. Deputy Le Clerc said they were keen to be working on a "blank canvas" for the law, as Guernsey has no previous discrimination laws.
To create the legislation, they have been using six examples of social models from Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, the UK and Canada. The social model is an alternative to a medical model, similar to the one Jersey has adopted - it aims to put inclusion and prevention of discrimination ahead of other matters.
While questioning the GDA members, the panel established they were set on a social model because of a number of reasons. The GDA also argued a good amount of progress had been made in a number of areas, however they did agree more needed to be made. It said its priority was on equal rights and inclusion.
The questioning panel was comprised of Deputy Chris Green, Deputy Peter Roffey and Advocate Peter Harwood. Deputy Green said: "This public hearing is an opportunity to examine the degree of progress being made on the Disability & Inclusion Strategy by the key Government Committees together with relevant third party organisations."
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