Status of Disability Rights in Southern Africa

This 56-page report shares the findings from a research project into disability rights in nine countries in southern Africa. Undertaken by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), in partnership with Open Society Foundations’ Disability Rights Initiative and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, the research sought to find out detailed country specific information to enable OSISA to assess where the organisation could provide on-going support. Two reports were commissioned - this general overview and a compilation of the detailed country reports. According to the report, people living with disabilities (PWD) are the most marginalised people in a region where life is already difficult for the majority of the population due to severe poverty, lack of development, and high unemployment. Most of the organisations and individuals interviewed during the research had to conduct their activities and advocacy work on an extremely tight budget – in most cases with little or no state support. In depth country interviews showed that the continued survival of disability rights organisations was one of their greatest challenges.

The report states that campaigns and university courses on disability rights should include a strong emphasis on the socio-economic rights and entitlements of PWDs, and the need to exert constant pressure on governments to provide essential services and opportunities to the disabled among their populations. These essentials should include not only physical care but provision for mental and social development, in particular education and literacy programmes. Unless governments provide such support, disabled rights activists will continue to find it extremely difficult to reach and involve PWDs in fighting for their rights and improving their chances of earning livelihoods.

Better and broader access to education was widely regarded by the respondents as the only way out of poverty for the millions of PWDs in the region. It is also a fundamental requirement for the advancement of disability rights, because if the majority of PWDs continue to be ignorant of the existence of rights-based discourses and campaigns, they can neither contribute to, nor profit from them. In some southern African countries in the sample, campaigns to broaden access to inclusive education are already under way. However, sufficient financial and human resources to achieve this objective are not always available.

The research findings indicated that, apart from a few law schools where disability rights were included in some of the standard law courses and curricula, no stand-alone courses in this subject were offered. Where courses on disability were taught in the humanities and health sciences, these tended to concentrate on issues such as rehabilitation and counselling, and were not rights-orientated. The legal academics in the nine countries examined proved to have very little awareness of disability issues and rights or knowledge of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, once they had been introduced to the idea, most of them showed a guarded interest in pursuing the topic and introducing a course on disability rights.

Recommendations outlined in the report include the following:

• Disabled Peoples’ Organisations (DPOs) must communicate to their governments that disability is a cross-cutting development priority and not a separate side-issue.
• DPOs need to illustrate the many long-term consequences of PWDs being denied access to education and employment; the extra burdens carried by women with disability; and, the inter-linkages between disability, poverty, gender, vulnerability, sexual abuse, violence, and HIV and AIDS. The common lesson to be elicited from all these topics is that they interact to reinforce poverty and powerlessness, a situation that most DPO members will recognise from their personal experience.
• There needs to be much greater awareness – and use – of the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities through workshops on the content and purpose of the Convention and its potential as an advocacy tool.
• Most DPOs need up-to-date training in advocacy and lobbying methods, and the range of strategies that should be employed at different times and under various circumstances.
• Assistance is urgently needed to improve regional and international networks and the networking skills of DPO staff, so that each organisation can learn from others in DPOs, human rights bodies and development organisations, and identify benchmarks that can be applied in their own practice.
• As emphasised repeatedly in the report, improvement in the general educational levels of PWDs is perhaps the most important issue that the disability movement in southern Africa needs to pursue. Whether their efforts are directed toward inclusive education and/or specialised education programmes for disabled children, DPOs and governments in the region need the financial support of donors and the expertise of different kinds of education and disability specialists to meet the technical, teacher training and other requirements of schools that offer PWDs the facilities they need.
• There is a need to counteract the recent decrease in capacity and motivation of many DPOs and their leaders. Perhaps the most important of these is the question: Who, in these circumstances, will be the torch-bearers for the realisation of disability rights? If DPOs are to continue to make a contribution, their organisations and the disability movement itself must be rejuvenated. The report provides some instructive examples and best practices.
• Finally, there is a need to consider ways of bringing about major changes in the mind set of non-disabled people in southern African societies. In all nine countries, there were shocking reports of pervasive negative stereotyping, stigma and discrimination visited upon PWDs. The worst of these occurred in the rural areas.

The report concludes that if the rights of PWDs are ever to be taken seriously, programmes that involve the whole of society will have to be undertaken (possibly with the help of television and radio) to counteract false stereotypes. These campaigns could follow in the footsteps of others used to break down prejudice and misinformation, like racial and gender discrimination and the stigma related to HIV and AIDS. It is time for disability activists to look for new ideas and fresh inspiration, which should, at the very least, include innovative ways to persuade governments and donors to try out new approaches and pilot projects.

Click here to download the full report in PDF format.