by Chris Agbo
Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) on 3-4 June 2020 in Abuja organized a two-day technical meeting onTHE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (PROHIBITION) ACT, 2018.
The Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018 is an important piece of legislation which prohibits all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities and seeks to integrate them into the society. However, since the passage / assent of the Law in 2018/2019, very little progress has been made towards the implementation of its provisions; this is largely due to a lack of political will and absence of the requisite programming environment.
To this end, through the support of Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption programme, funded by the European Union, and implemented by the British Council, DRAC through her Policy to Practice project, put together a stakeholders technical meeting for the development of a guide for the implementation of the Disability Act with the following objectives:
1. Hold consultations with the disability community on the priority areas for implementation of the Act and the role of various stakeholders.
2. Develop a framework for the implementation of the Disability Act that can be used by a wide range of stakeholders to jumpstart implementation of the Act.
The Executive Director of DRAC, Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu in her opening remarks said that even though the COVID-19 Pandemic is holding activities down, the issue of discrimination against persons with disabilities continues to go on unabated and even exacerbated by the pandemic. The stakeholders technical meeting is designed to look into the Nigeria Disability Act and begin to proffer ways it can be implemented especially with the role of organizations of persons with disabilities and development partners in mind, because it is important that a broad range of stakeholders participate in the implementation of the Act including persons with disabilities themselves. Speaking further, she said that the technical meeting is also to provide guidance for development partners because there is need for them to mainstream the implementation of the disability act in their programs so that they can allocate resources to disability issues in their programming while also playing the role of engaging with state actors for the implementation of the act.
In the near future, there will be another meeting where the outcome of this meeting will be presented to the community of development partners. She concluded by saying that though the Act was signed over a year ago yet nothing concrete has been done about its implementation, therefore all actors must begin to take proactive measures, in words and actions to build momentum and gain traction for its implementation.
Oluwatoyosi Giwa, from the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption programme (ROLAC) in a her goodwill message said that their support for DRAC’s Policy to Practice Project is at the heart of their commitment to work for the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities. Speaking further, she urged the participants to come up with the kind of feedback that DRAC and even other partners will find adequate to arrive at the expected outcomes of the project and feed into the implementation of the Act.
The meeting was participatory and interactive and facilitated by two core experts in the human rights and development community, Barr. John Onyeukwu and Jennifer Adebambo. Participants engaged in interactive exercises and brainstormed on technical issues like tracing the linkage between the CRPD and SDGs, identifying and ranking priority areas, recommending workable actions relating to the different sections of the act, PEST analysis, agenda setting for the expected disability commission and agreeing on recommendations on the qualities of ideal commissioners of the Disability Commission.
The participants were drawn from the various disability clusters, OPD leaders and notable personalities in disability community.
Hon. Danjuma Atta, the Senior Special Adviser to the Honorable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk, also graced the meeting with his presence. While declaring the meeting open, he said that the meeting is coming at the right time and the objectives are in sync with the Ministry’s because the government is at an advanced stage of plans for the establishment of the National Commission for Persons with disabilities. Speaking further, he appreciated DRAC for the wonderful job the organization is doing and reaffirmed the commitment of the Minster of Humanitarian affairs towards working with persons with disabilities to actualize the human rights of persons with disabilities as is enshrined in the Nigeria Disability act.
