Rhoda Garland, who until today was serving as Acting Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, was officially appointed to this position after her nomination passed the Parliamentary scrutiny and got the approval of the Standing Committee on Public Appointments.
She will be the third person who will be occupying this important position in the sector. She had also served in the position of Executive Director within the same Commission. Rhoda Garland graduated with a Bachelor of Honors in Accounting and Finance and later became a Management Accountant within the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
For many years she worked as a Management Accountant with companies based in the United Kingdom and was involved in projects both from a financial point of view, as well as from that of management and IT. In Malta she continued to work as an IT consultant, until in 2014 she started working as a researcher on the first Report of the Maltese State to the United Nations Convention within the Parliamentary Secretariat for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Disability and Active Aging.
In 2015, after successfully completing a Masters course in Disability Studies from the University of Malta, she joined the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, first in the role of consultant on projects funded by the EU, then from 2016, as Executive Director. From a young age, Garland was active in favor of the rights of people with disabilities. She was the President of the NGO Breaking Limits whose job was to raise awareness about the rights of people with disabilities both with the public in general, as well as among politicians and policymakers.
Garland’s predecessor in the position of Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Samantha Pace Gasan, earlier this year began to occupy another public position. While thanking Mrs. Samantha Pace Gasan for the work she carried out in this position, the Minister for Inclusion, Volunteering and Consumer Rights Julia Farrugia Portelli wished Mrs. Rhoda Garland every success in the new post.
