Persons with disabilities According to the National Population and Housing Census of 2011, about 5% of the people in Namibia are people living with disabilities. Apart from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPWD) which Namibia ratified in 2006. Prior to ratification of the Convention Namibia adopted the National Policy on Disability of 1997, the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act, Act No. 29 of 1998, and the National Disability Council Act, Act No. 26 of 2004 as well as the Labour Act, Act No. 11 of 2007 which are most exemplary in terms of protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. xiii. Refer to indigenous communities and population by their ethnic or tribal names, and discourage the use of any derogatory terms which are discriminatory to these groups. IN RESPONSE The Government and all official documents refer and/or mention the indigenous communities such as the San, Ovatue and Ovatjimba as they prefer to call themselves. The term “San” is a collective name, which refers to the San communities which consist of seven distinct groups. However, Government has recognized the San community’s traditional authorities according to their distinct ethnic groups. In 1993 there was an international conference (Common Access to Development) in !Khwa ttu, Botswana where all the San people in Southern Africa were represented and decided that the term San will be used in the meantime. During 1996 at the inaugural annual general assembly of the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA), the San delegates decided that they should be referred to and be called San when addressing various San groups in Southern Africa. The term San is therefore at no stage used as a derogatory term but a group name generally used in southern Africa to refer to the language group classification which is the Khoisan language. xiv. Continue and enhance its affirmative actions aimed at ensuring the protection of the rights of indigenous population and communities. IN RESPONSE Namibia is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007. The Government, through the Office of the Prime Minister, established the San Development Programme in 2005. The Programme is - 11 -