Persons with disabilities challenge FG’s report to UN on rights in Nigeria

Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in Nigeria are ready to forward an alternative report to challenge the one submitted by the Federal Government to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the rights of persons with disabilities in the country.

The Executive Director, Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Mr. David Anyaele, disclosed this in Abuja, at the end of a training for Nigeria’s OPDs on UN Treaty Monitoring Mechanisms and Alternative Reporting.

They regretted that discrimination against Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in the country had continued unabated.

According to Anyaele, discriminations against PWDs were on the rise in the country because, Ministry Department and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government intentionally refused to implement the discrimination against PWDs Act signed into law by the President in 2019.

“Issues around employment of people with disabilities, issues around participation of PWDs in government programmes and activities, issues around access to public infrastructure for PWDs have continued to remain unaddressed by state and non-state institutions. This is the state of PWDs in Nigeria,” Anyaele said.

He said the workshop was to train selected OPDs on alternative reporting so that participants would understand the UN Treaty System and Monitoring Mechanisms and steps in writing an alternative report.

Regional Head of Programme, Disability Rights Fund (DRF), Katiya Sakala, said they were supporting the Nigeria OPDs DRF grantees to prepare to submit an alternative report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“With Nigeria now having submitted their initial report on the rights of persons with disabilities, this is a requirement as provided for in Article 33 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is required that when the government submits its report, there should be a parallel report, which is supposed to be submitted by the Civil Society Organisations” Katiya said.

Nigeria’s Programme Officer, DRF, Theophilus Odaudu, said the significanceof the training was for country to ratify international treaties and obligations.

The lead facilitator at the training, Foluso Adegalu, said that right-based advocacy was all about NGOs tracking their activities, so that they could see its impact.

One of the participants, Mrs. Patience Ogolo-Dickson thanked CCD and its partner, Disability Rights Fund, for the training.