TRES/001/10/2013 – People with Disabilities
We, the participants of the NGO Forum preceding the 54th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the 28th African Human Rights Book Fair held from 18th – 20th October, 2013 in Banjul, The Gambia
Noting that the rights of people with disabilities are limited by attitudinal barriers and limited allocation of resources and funding;
Concerned that 98% of children with disabilities do not attend school and that people with disabilities face barriers in accessing healthcare;
Recognizing that the sexuality of disabled women is often denied and forced sterilization occurs;
Further concerned that poverty disproportionately affects people wi th disabilities, with 90% being unemployed;
Further noting that access to justice remains a barrier and that gender-based violence against women with disabilities remains largely ignored and hidden;
Further concerned that some people with disabilities, especially those with albinism and psychosocial disabilities, often are subjected to torture, cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment and the deprivation of their liberty and exclusion from communities and that the right to life of some people with disabilities is threatened;
Calls upon the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to:
- Include disability and all other relevant human diversities in all reporting mechanisms;
- Involve and consult widely with persons with disabilities in the development and drafting of the Disability Protocol;
- Adopt a resolution on the situation of people with albinism to prohibit the atrocities which they face, including ritual killings and trafficking of their body parts;
- Pay specific attention to putting an end to all practices that are experienced as torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments and punishments of people with disabilities;
- Adopt a resolution protecting disability rights defenders.
Calls upon its civil society participants to:
- Raise awareness about and advocate for implementation of the right to inclusive education for all children with disabilities;
- Advocate and encourage the respect and promotion of reproductive, sexual rights and family rights of all women with disabilities;
- Advocate that all African countries ratify and implement the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2007), the Optional Protocol, as well as the Convention Against Torture and its Optional Protocol so that national preventative mechanisms are established and the standards and norms of the CRPD are included in recommendations from these mechanisms.
Done in Banjul, The Gambia – 20th October, 2013
