The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007.
There were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and one ratification of the Convention. This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on its opening day.
It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century and is the first human rights convention to be opened for signature by regional integration organizations. The Convention entered into force on 3 May 2008.
The Convention follows decades of work by the United Nations to change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as “objects” of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as “subjects” with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free, and informed consent as well as being active members of the society.
The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.
The Convention was negotiated during eight sessions of an Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly from 2002 to 2006, making it the fastest negotiated human rights treaty. The Convention laid down a number of rights to be provided to the persons of disabilities such as right to life, equal recognition before the law, access to justice, liberty and security of persons, freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, freedom from exploitation, violence and so on…
And as at 2020, there are reportedly over 27 million Nigerians with some form of disability. The five most common types of disabilities in Nigeria are, in descending order, visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment, intellectual impairment, and communication impairment.
Poverty is one of the biggest causes of disability in Nigeria. Poor people are most vulnerable to disability because they are forced to live and work in unsafe environments with poor sanitation, crowded living conditions, and with little access to education, clean water, or enough good food. This makes diseases such as tuberculosis and polio–and the severe disabilities they cause– much more common because diseases get passed from one person to another more easily.
However, THE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (PROHIBITION) ACT, 2018, an ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE FULL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES INTO THE SOCIETY, ESTABLISHED THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.
This of course vests in the Commission the responsibilities to carry the burdens of Persons with Disabilities as well as protect their interests, such as Education, Health Care, Social, Economic and Civil Rights: and for Related Matters.
The establishment of the Commission could be seen as a contributory factor to the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari to alleviate hundred million Nigerians out of Poverty status within the neighbourhood of 10 years. And from this angle, the future seems so bright for the Disability community and Nigerians at large.
And on this foundation, one will be right to say that the Federal Government has given more than its own fair share of input to the welfare of the special community though; there is still room for more.
However, as the status of the Commission stands, it has become synonymous with a tool, a weapon, or a leeway to success for Persons with Disabilities.
And seizing the power and grace it has presented, it is now up to the Persons with Disabilities to drive their own vehicle themselves and to take their rightful place in the Society.
Mbanefo JohnMichaels I
Head: Press and Public Relations Unit (NCPWD) 8th June, 2021
