Abstract

ZAHRA SAFSAF, Fatima. The rights of persons with disabilities in the African Human Rights System. AHRY [online]. 2021, vol.5, pp.202-230. ISSN 2663-323X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.29053/2523-1367/2021/v5a10.

Persons with disabilities still face multiple and complex challenges. International and regional human rights treaties were adopted to protect their rights from a social and human rights-based approach to disability which considers disability as resulting from an individual's interaction with their environment. This approach, however, does not consider the fact that there are differences in the abilities of individuals. The prevailing view in many states continues to take the charitable or medical approach to disability, where the focus is on congenital or non-congenital 'impairments' of the person. The result is that efforts for dealing with disabilities are still based on medical treatment or rehabilitation, or seeking to facilitate the care of a person with a disability. Although there are many similarities between the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa, the Protocol stands out for the importance it attaches to certain specificities related to disability issues in Africa. These include issues such as emergencies, armed conflicts, forced displacement, humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters, harmful customs and concepts and the role of traditional forms of justice. The Protocol also emphasises the consolidation of positive African values by emphasising the obligation of states to provide the necessary resources to promote the rights of persons with disabilities. Notwithstanding the normative developments, work must still be done to realise the guarantees for the rights of persons with disabilities and to address disability issues in general, taking advantage of the great development and wealth of knowledge that has accumulated in this regard. In particular, more efforts must be made to sustain the political will to achieve the entry into force of the Protocol and its ratification by the greatest number of States. With regard to the rights of persons with disabilities, it is also time to move from words to deeds - although this is a long and complex process which requires the concerted efforts of all parties concerned working at different levels - some of the steps to be taken include awareness raising, advocacy and lobbying, and involving people with disabilities in everything that affects them

Keywords : Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Protocol; African Human Rights System; Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa.

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