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9 - Assessing the Benefits of the CRPD in Cameroon: The Experience of Persons with Disabilities in the Buea Municipality
- Edited by Jeff D. Grischow, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario
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- Book:
- Disability Rights and Inclusiveness in Africa
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 07 October 2022
- Print publication:
- 19 July 2022, pp 211-230
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Persons with disabilities (PwDs) are indisputably one of the most marginalized groups in all societies around the world. The majority of them are poor and record low outcomes in education, employment, health, and political participation (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). There is a positive correlation between disability and poverty: each can be a cause and a consequence of the other (Braithwaite and Mont, 2009; Filmer, 2008; Mitra, 2006; Trani and Loeb, 2010). Although the challenges faced by PwDs are global phenomena, they are worse for those in the Global South than the Global North, including countries in Africa (WHO, 2011). In Cameroon, PwDs encounter discrimination in all spheres of life, and their access to socio-economic resources, such as education, employment and healthcare, is limited. They often start school at older ages than their colleagues without disabilities, and they have a much higher tendency to drop out. The majority of children with disabilities (CwDs) who manage to access education do so in special schools, which are often poorly resourced and have weak capacities to meet their needs (WHO, 2011). As a result, PwDs have fewer educational qualifications and are more likely to be unemployed. When employed, they usually perform menial jobs with meagre wages.
These issues are true globally, but they are especially stark in the Global South, as (for example) Mitra and Sambamoorthi (2009) show in their 2009 study on India, and as Trani and Loeb (2012) demonstrate in an interesting comparison of Afghanistan and Zambia. Other evidence from Africa includes, to name a few studies, Cramm, Lorenzo, and Nieboer's (2014) comparison of education and employment among South African YwDs and their peers and Échevin's (2013) analysis of discrimination in education and employment among PwDs in Cape Verde. The main factors leading to exclusion from mainstream activities include prejudice and stereotypical attitudes arising from misconceptions about disability, as well as beliefs that PwDs are less human than their counterparts without disabilities (Shier, Graham, and Jones, 2009). It is in recognition of the vulnerability of PwDs that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2006.
7 - Knowledge and Utilization of the CRPD and Personswith Disability Act 715 of Ghana among Deaf People
- Edited by Jeff D. Grischow, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario
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- Book:
- Disability Rights and Inclusiveness in Africa
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 07 October 2022
- Print publication:
- 19 July 2022, pp 171-192
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter investigates the potential of the United Nations (UN) Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and Ghana's Persons with Disability Act (PwDA) as tools for achieving disability rights for deaf Ghanaians. Based on qualitative research in four field locations, the analysis focuses on awareness of the CRPD among deaf Ghanaians and the extent to which the participants have used the CRPD and PwDA as vehicles to promote deaf rights. The fieldwork reveals that deaf Ghanaians face significant barriers in both learning about the CRPD and utilizing it to promote their rights. This is particularly true for those with lower levels of education, including poor literacy in sign language. As a result, despite Ghana's implementation of the PwDA in 2006 and ratification of the CRPD in 2012, their implementation has been problematic for deaf Ghanaians. Improving this situation will require a heightened commitment from the government of Ghana to provide awareness-raising programmes, as well as capacity-building for Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs) such as the Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD) to enable these organizations to support deaf Ghanaians in their struggle to achieve the rights enshrined in the CRPD and PwDA.
It is well known that 80% of the world's one billion PwDs live in the Global South and that 40% reside in Africa (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). In Ghana, the government estimates that 3% of the total population, or about 893,000 people, live with some form of disability (Ghana Statistical Services, 2012; World Bank [WB], 2020). Of these, the estimate of the number of deaf persons in Ghana ranges between 110,625 and 211,712 (Owoo, 2019). Persons with disabilities (PwDs), including deaf persons, are often excluded from development projects. The majority lack access to social and economic services such as education, employment, and healthcare. Consequently, they experience widespread poverty, and many are unable to exercise their fundamental human rights. This exclusion from rights is underpinned by negative attitudes and prejudice towards PwDs, as well as a lack of understanding of the causes of disability, especially in Ghana and other countries in the Global South (Agbenyega, 2003; Filmer, 2008).