CCD advocates access to justice for PWDs, review of legal processes

The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has advocated equitable access to the justice system and a comprehensive review of legal processes to better serve Persons With Disabilities (PWD).

It gave the charge in Lagos during a one-day capacity-building workshop for media practitioners with the theme, “Effective Reportage on Disability Inclusive Justice System.”

The workshop is the implementation of the group’s project titled” Enhancing access to justice, democratic governance and promoting political participation among women, elderly and youths with disabilities in Nigeria.”

The objective is to enhance media commitment to the investigation and publication of practices that discriminate against PWDs who seek equal access to justice in Nigeria.

According to the CCD finance administration manager, Florence Austin, PWDs have the right to have access to justice in every area of the country.

The programme person for the project, Njoku Christiana, lamented that over time, PWDs’ issues had not been reported accurately when it comes to media publicity.

She, therefore, called on the media to portray the issue particularly when it comes to accessing the justice system.

“Media practitioners should be able to portray, and use the right terminologies when it comes to portraying issues of PWD and when issues of PWD are portrayed, it should not be something that comes out once in a while. Get stories of PWDs that have been denied justice so that it can be portrayed and that will encourage them to come out and share their stories of barriers when it comes to access justice,” Christiana stated.

Earlier, in his goodwill message, Mark Humphrey charged the media on features writing and editorials to help relieve the area of discrimination and stereotype and on the issue of social justice. He also charged lawyers to help PWDs champion their issues.