By Chris Agbo,
Research has shown that many persons with disabilities do not know where to seek justice in situations of sexual and gender-based violence, disability-based violence, and other rights violation. Also, many victims of these abuse have horrible experiences seeking for justice, making them to continue to live in a cycle of abuse and violation.
Whenever there are cases of abuse or violation against persons with disabilities, their first port of call is usually the Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) around them, unfortunately most of these OPDs and CSOs do not have required capacity to assist them in getting justice.
It was in this vein that Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) organized a 3-day Training of Community-Based Paralegals for OPDs and CSOs to strengthen their capacity towards providing holistic paralegal support services for persons with disabilities whose rights have been violated. The training is part of activities of the Policy to Practice (P2P) project of DRAC supported by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) program funded by European Union and implemented by the British Council in Nigeria.
The Executive Director of DRAC, Dr Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu in her welcome address said that whenever the rights of persons with disabilities, especially women and girls are violated, generally, their first port of call is either an OPD, a women’s rights organization or other CSOs. Unfortunately, they rarely get help or support from these organizations because they lack knowledge and skill of paralegal support services. It was on this premise DRAC organized the training for Community-Based Paralegals to equip OPDs and CSOs with basic legal knowledge required for counseling, guidance and support that would be helpful in getting justice for to persons with disabilities whose rights have been violated.
The facilitator, who is a seasoned lawyer with disability and National President, Association of Lawyers with Disabilities in Nigeria (ALDIN), Barrister Daniel Onwe, took participants through the concept of paralegal/community-based paralegal, the qualities, duties/roles and functions of paralegals, the roles of barristers and solicitors, jurisdiction in Law, life cycle of criminal case and civil case as well as relevant laws that community-based paralegals should acquaint themselves with for rendering effective paralegal support services to victims of abuse.
The participants’ understanding on sexual and gender-based violence was enhanced when Dr. Irene explained the difference between sex and gender roles, sexual and gender-based violence and disability-based violence, gender equality, violence against women, harmful tradition practices and causes of gender-based. She informed that women with disabilities suffer ten times abuse than their male counterparts because women generally are highly subjugated and discriminated against.
Participants discussed reasons why victims of gender-based violence do not seek help or report incidences of violence against them and a variety of reasons were identified which included victim shaming and blaming, inaccessibility of services and information, inappropriateness of services, threats from perpetrators, lack of finance and family influence.
At the end of the training, representatives from the OPDs and CSOs made commitment to use the acquired knowledge to ensure better community-based paralegal services are provided to clients as well as conduct a step-down training for their staff.
TQM learnt that DRAC would continue to engage the trained paralegals to ensure effective paralegal support services for overall access to justice for persons with disabilities, especially women and girls with disabilities.
