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