Two years after the expiration of the five-year transitory grace period within which all public buildings and structures are to be modified to be disability-compliant according to the 2018 Act, international human rights expert, Prof Uchenna Emelonye, has urged the Federal Government, through her agencies like the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) to urgently enforce the provisions of the Act.
He made the call at a roundtable on the Implementation of the African Disability Protocol in Nigeria, convened in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria, the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and the Ability Life Initiative (TALI) alongside other stakeholders from government, civil society, development partners, and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) to deliberate on critical actions and strategies needed for operationalising the rights of persons with disability in Nigeria.
According to him, “the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act was adopted in 2018 by the National Assembly as a landmark legal instrument to strengthen the protection of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities in Nigeria”
While commending the Nigerian government and the proactiveness of the National Assembly in taking significant steps to protect the rights of persons with disabilities with the enactment of the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018, and the establishment of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, long before the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa came into force in 2024, Emelonye noted that the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018 was a watershed in the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in Nigeria, providing for various regimes of human rights for persons with disabilities, including non-discrimination, right to equality, life, work, life and security of person, access to justice, education, health and freedom from torture, and harmful practices amongst other rights.
He stressed that with the enforcement period of the 2018 National Disability Act in place for two years now, there is an urgent need for all stakeholders to mainstream disability in all public buildings and facilities, including taking other measures to modify or abolish existing policies, laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against persons with disabilities.