Disability Inclusion Matters

  Background  Nigeria ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2007 and its optional protocol in 2010. Since then, civil society groups and people with disabilities have called on the government to put it into practice. Consequently, the Disability Bill formally called “Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Bill” was first passed into law in 2009 by the Nigerian National Assembly. But it did not get the assent of the then President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua. In 2011 and 2014, the Bill was again passed by the National Assembly and in both occasions, it was not assented to by the then President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Later, in November 2016 the Bill for the new law was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate joint committee, but the Bill was not sent to Nigeria’s President Muhammad Buhari for signature until December 2018. However, on January 23, 2019 the Nigeria’s president Muhammad Buhar

  Background The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and its Optional Protocol on 13 December 2006. On 30 March 2007 both were opened for signature at United Nations Headquarters in New York. An unprecedented 81 countries signed the UNCRPD on the opening day. But what led to this momentous event? Before the adoption of the UNCRPD other human rights instruments already addressed disability, either as part of a general focus or more specifically. Some, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — which together constitute the International Bill of Human Rights — promote and protect the rights of everyone, including persons with disabilities, through the non-discrimination clause. In all the three instruments, Article 2 obliges States Parties to guarantee human rights without distincti