By Chris Agbo
Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) on 28th February in Abuja put together a Project launch/Inception meeting of a new project known as Project Policy to Practice (P2P) – Improving Access to Justice for Women and Girls with Disabilities. The project which is supported by Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Programme is funded by European Union and implemented by British Council.
The Executive Director of DRAC, Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu speaking at the event said that the new project is based on the need to improve access to justice for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) especially women and girls with disabilities. It is necessitated from a research conducted by DRAC in 2017-2018, where persons with disabilities human rights are violated and they are unable to access justice because the facilities where they can access justice are not accessible or disability friendly. There is no physical access, environmental access, the wrong attitude of the service providers, and absence of protective policies. Women and Girls with disabilities suffer extreme forms of violence and they are unable to access justice which is as a result of negative comments, and attitudes which they usually get when they make effort to report cases of violence against them. Even in the case of rape, they have had a lot of humiliating experiences.
Speaking further, she said that this inception meeting was to help all stakeholders understand their roles towards ensuring access to justice. She highlighted the fact that protective laws such as VAPPA Act, Child Rights act and the Disability Act can be used to access justice for persons with disabilities but they are not being implemented using a disability lens, thus resulting in the barriers PWDs face. Therefore, P2P will work to bring these laws to life and ensure that they move from being just policies to becoming the standard practice. P2P will also look at the range of justice services and support the service providers to improve on their services to accommodate PWDs.
The Component Lead (Civil Society and Media component of ROLAC), Oluwatoyosi Giwa during her good will message said that one cardinal focus of ROLAC apart from their support for Anti-corruption drive of the government is access to justice for the most disadvantaged groups in the society particularly women, children and PWDs. She said that ROLAC looks at existing legislation for these groups, identifies what can be done to support government at all levels to implement these protective legislations and promote the specific roles of different groups and individuals to ensure that PWDs have access to justice. She urged stakeholders present not to look at the government as the only service provider or the only problem, we should contribute our own bit towards ensuring that access to justice for PWDs especially WGWDs is achieved.
Emmanuel Adedeji, the representative of Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) in a goodwill message commended DRAC and ROLAC for the initiative while he blamed the problem on the failure of Nigerians to engage laws that are meant to serve and protect them, instead they continue to suffer what the law sought to prevent. He assured DRAC of the NBA’s support and willingness to be a part of any initiative that seeks to enhance access to justice for PWDs.
Mr. Ujah Abdulmununi, FCT chairman of Joint National Association of Persons with disabilities (JONAPWD) commended DRAC, said that the project is coming at the right time because lack of access to justice for PWDs is posing a lot of challenge for PWDs. He urged all stakeholder to rally around PWDs to ensure that the set goals and objectives of the project is achieved.
The Executive Director, Women Africa, Mrs. Chinwe Onyeukwu in her goodwill message described access to justice of PWDs as a critical challenge facing persons with disabilities especially women and girls with disabilities because findings have shown that women and girls with disabilities are more vulnerable to violence. In most cases, they don’t get the services they deserve due to the attitude of the service providers. She urges all stakeholders to contribute towards ensuring that by the end of the project, a reasonable progress on the access to justice of PWDs must have been made.
Deputy Director, National Human Rights Commission Aisha Katungo in her goodwill message said that access for justice is one of the cardinal principles of rule of law, if you cannot access justice, you cannot express your feeling and you cannot challenge the decision makers and hold them accountable for their actions / inactions. She expressed the commission’s willingness to partner with DRAC on this project because it has to do with the promotion of rights of PWDs with special focus on women and girls with disabilities.
Dr. Irene presented the overview of P2P, she gave the background of the project, the scope, goals and objectives, project components and expected outcomes.
The event witnessed the official launch of Project Policy to Practice (P2P) when the special banner was unveiled by Toyosi Giwa of ROLAC and the project inception cake was cut by the Executive Director of DRAC, ROLAC representative and other stakeholders at the event.
The event had in attendance, traditional leaders from the six-area council, leaders of the disability community, CSOs, Government officials, Professional organizations like NBA and Religious leaders.
