People With Disabilities Are Yet To Be Recognised By Law

Hauwa Ojeifo, a mental health and disability advocate, and founder of She Writes Woman (SWW), has lamented the complicity of the United Nation member states and society in how they treat people with disabilities, especially when it comes to giving them full and equal recognition before the law.

“I have the privilege to speak before you today,” she said. “I carry their stories, mine and the more than 1 billion people living with a disability—many of whom have been stripped of their dignity and agency—because we can no longer wait for what seems like a favour. These are our rights.”

She noted that with the support of the Disability Rights Advocacy Fund, her organisation, SWW, has documented cases of medical and mental health practitioners violating people with disabilities and stripping them of free and informed consent as well as forcing detention on them.