Participants at the validation meeting of stakeholders on the draft report for presentation to the UN periodic review on human rights by Coalition of Disability Organisations (CODO) on Tuesday in Abuja.
By Ikenna Uwadileke
The Coalition of Disability Organisations (CODO), on Tuesday in Abuja appealed to the Federal Government to scale up response to UN recommendations on the protection of rights of persons with disabilities (PWD).
Mr David Anyaele, Convener of CODO, made the appeal at the validation meeting of stakeholders on the draft report for presentation to the UN periodic review on human rights.
Anyaele, who commended the Federal Government for signing the Disability Bill into law and establishing the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, emphasized the need for inclusive education.
According to him, “we have discovered that the Nigerian government has set up some level of mechanism to the rights of persons with disability.
“This is particularly the signing of Disability Law, the establishment of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities.
“But around issues that have to do with inclusive education, Nigeria is still weak in its response to inclusive education that will provide the needs of people with different kinds of disabilities.
“On budgeting, policy, point of programming, you discover that the Nigerian government’s response remains weak, so also are issues of rights of women with disabilities, and access to healthcare is still an issue,’’ Anyaele said.
Saying that discrimination against persons with disabilities remained pervasive, Anyaele tasked various state institutions to address the challenge.
According to him, the Nigerian government has taken some strides in the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities since its last review by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
“Nevertheless, there is a lot to be done to ensure the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities in Nigeria,’’ Anyaele said.
On his part, Mr Theophilus Odaudu, Programme Manager, Disability Rights Fund, West Africa, said that validating stakeholders’ report for the universal periodic review was essential in assessing the level of implementation of rights of disabilities.
“Nigeria was last reviewed four years ago and there were some recommendations made to Nigeria.
“So, this organisation is looking at those recommendations as they concern persons with disabilities to see how far the government has implemented them.
“So, it is like providing more information to the committee, to the mechanism to be able to provide more structured recommendations for the country, especially as they relate to persons with disabilities.
“There has been a mixture of everything; some of them have been implemented, there are also those that need improvement.
“Progress has been made in terms of disability rights but there are still more grounds to be covered.
“Primarily, I would say that one great achievement is the enactment of the Discrimination against Persons with Disability Act.
“But beyond the enactment, there has to be implementation, the implementation of this act has not been very effective,’’ Odaudu said.
He expressed dissatisfaction that some government departments are not interested in developing policies and regulations to bring into effect the benefit of the Disability Act.
“So, I think for us mostly it is implementation of existing laws and policies and we need more structured implementation as they will benefit persons with disabilities,’’ Odaudu said.
Mr Folusho Adegalu, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa, said that Nigeria is expected to submit the stakeholders report by June to explain how the country has implemented the recommendations of 2019.
Among others, the group recommended that Nigeria should ensure appropriate budget for implementation and enforcement of the National Disability Act and laws to promote and protect persons with disability.
It also urged the government to engage in wider consultations with organisations of persons with disabilities to mainstream their rights in policies relating to healthcare, employment and to combat sexual exploitation, especially women and girls.
Moreso, the group recommended that the inclusion of education be mainstreamed into activities of all government agencies. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)