By Angela Atabo/Justina Auta

CBM Global Disability Inclusion, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has inaugurated the” Rights in Action” project to address intersectional discrimination and human rights violations against Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

Inaugurating the project on Tuesday in Abuja, Mr Abdulazeez Musa, Country Director, CBM Global Disability Inclusion, said the project aimed to address all forms of marginalisation against PWDs.

According to Musa, the project which is an Organisation of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) advocacy project is funded by the Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The project is being facilitated by CBM Global Disability Inclusion and implemented by our technical partners, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) and Inclusive Friends Association (IFA).

“What the project aims to achieve is to help PWDs to be able to achieve their goals and live their lives with dignity, to enjoy their full fundamental human rights just like anybody else.”

Musa added that the project also aimed to make PWDs have the ability and the capacity to self-advocate.

“On this project, we will be focusing largely on the marginalised groups because even among PWDs we have those that are also further marginalised.

“So you can imagine the layer of marginalisation and discrimination. An example of such a group is persons with learning difficulty or challenges and sometimes even the deaf community,” he said.

The country director explained that the organisation would work with such groups to strengthen their organisational capacity with a view to designing projects, mobilising their members and speaking out for themselves.

He said the OPDs would come up with the priorities themselves and design the interventions as they see fit and the technical partners would provide the needed support.

He added that a key aspect of the project would be to analyse how the community sees PWDs which is at the core of the issues.

Musa noted that Nigeria was not short of laws because it had passed the Disability Rights Act, adding that implementation had been the issue as people continue to see PWDs as persons that cannot contribute to nation building.

“So this project aims to address that; and we hope to see that this law is now being fully implemented by being allocated funds during the budgeting process and PWDs are living just like any other person in Nigeria,” said.

He disclosed that the project would run for two years, commencing in two pilot states of Adamawa in the Northeast and the Federal Capital Territory.

In the same vein, one of the implementing partners, IFA, said the project would aid in closing the marginalised gaps against and among PWDs.

The Executive Director, IFA, Grace Jerry, said the expectation of IFA would be to spotlight the most marginalised organisations that haven’t really been made part of major policies to drive inclusion processes in Nigeria.

“So for us, it is spotlighting those organisations and empowering them to drive policies for themselves, by themselves, and for the general good of the marginalised group.

“For instance, you talk about the deaf-blind community. This is a community of persons with disabilities who haven’t really gained much recognition in terms of their needs and their rights.

“This project, therefore seeks to amplify such marginalised groups and, of course, other groups giving them an opportunity to drive policy for themselves.

Mr Abdullahi Usman, President, JONAPWD, and also the implementing partner of the project, says the dream of the project is to see the underrepresented groups among PWDs get their own rights like others.

“This is because although collectively, PWDs in this country are fighting for their rights, but among us, there are also some PWDs who are also discriminated against within the community.

“For instance, people who have intellectual issues, people with cerebral palsy, the deaf and blind and persons with albinism are often denied their rights because of claims that they are not PWDs.

“So my expectation at the end of this project is to see that other communities of PWDs fully understand that all PWDs have equal rights with people without disabilities,” he said.

A representative from the Ministry of Women Affairs, Ms Sweet Okundaye, Director Legal Services, commended CBM Global Disability Inclusion for the initiative and promised the ministry’s support to the project.

Similarly, Ms Oluchi Adieze, Desk Officer, Rights of Persons with Disabilities, National Human Rights Commission, said the commission was established to promote, protect, and enforce the rights of every human living in Nigeria.

Adieze pledged the commission’s support to the project and urged the implementing partners to leverage its state offices to address human rights challenges from the grassroots. (NAN)

Edited by Deborah Coker