The term “disability” is difficult to define, not only because it encompasses such a wide range of conditions and experiences, but because disability is ultimately context-dependent.
According to the United Nations, the term refers to individuals who have “physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various attitudinal and environmental barriers, hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol (A/RES/61/106) was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.
The Gambia National Assembly passed the Persons with Disabilities Bill, and was assented to by the President of the Republic on 4 August 2022. After almost a decade of tireless advocacy engaging a range of stakeholders, people with disabilities now have a law in place that protects their fundamental rights and freedoms.
Mr.Lamin K Fatty is the Executive Director of The Gambia Federation of the Disabled (GFD). In an interview this medium, he said The Gambian disability community has gotten their long-awaited legislation that ensures their fundamental rights and freedoms.
“The Bill was recently passed into “Persons with Disabilities Act” by the country’s National Assembly, ten years after it was drafted,” he affirmed.
He added that the Act provides for “the health care, social support, accessibility, rehabilitation, education and vocational training, communication, employment and work protection and promotion of basic rights for persons with disabilities and for connected matters.
Mr. Fatty believes that this is a major step towards the fulfillment of The Gambia’s international obligation, especially to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the country ratified in July 2015.
The Gambia, having signed and ratified the convention, which is an international legal instrument bears the responsibility of ensuring the “full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for persons with disabilities” in the Gambia without discrimination, including by “modifying or abolishing existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against persons with disabilities.” The State is further required to “prohibit all discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantee equal and effective legal protection against discrimination on all grounds”.
Despite the guarantees of this Convention and the Gambian Constitution of 1997, which states that “all persons shall be equal before the law,” Mr. Fatty pointed out that people with disabilities continue to face numerous barriers to full inclusion and participation in their communities in The Gambia.
The Government and power-holders in the country now have a key instrument to fulfill their rights, tackle discrimination and other issues they face, and run an inclusive effort to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for all without leaving people with disabilities behind. Adding that consists of penalties for any violation of the right of a person with a disability, group or institution
According to the GFD boss, the Act is complementing the convention but that it was aligned and and contextualised to the Gambian reality to cover areas such as education health, indiscrimination equality, rights of women and children and ensure that marginalisation of persons with disability are taken care of.
Someone who is visually impaired find it very difficult, the segregated schools for persons with disability have very limited and resources available and are not sufficient, and areas such as mathematics and science are not available in school, so how can these people be enrolled in universities, he observed.
Mr Fatty made reference to Section 8 of the Act, which talks about the formation of an advisory council, of 17 members, responsible for the implementation of the Act; their functions, engagement and partnership with relevant stakeholders.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), Disability is part of being human. Almost everyone will temporarily or permanently experience disability at some point in their life. Over 1 billion people – about 15% of the global population – currently experience disability, and this number is increasing due in part to population aging and an increase in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases.
A person’s environment has a huge effect on the experience and extent of disability. Inaccessible environments create barriers that often hinder the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in society on an equal basis with others. Progress in improving social participation can be made by addressing these barriers and facilitating persons with disabilities in their day-to-day lives.
Disability isn’t physical or mental; it’s social. It’s a disability resulting from the lack of accessibility and empathy within and towards communities.
Chairman of the National Organisation for disabled Mr.Lamin Manneh said that in The Gambia inclusiveness is still lacking as well as the mechanisms that should be put in place to protect persons with disability.
He thanked government for making this bill an Act, adding that mechanisms and strategies for the implementation should be in place coupled with the establishment of the disability council which will work hand in hand with the stakeholders to empower the implementation process. “A wheelchair user isn’t disabled by their wheelchair, but by the lack of ramps. Exclusion, inaccessibility, and under-representation are all caused by the lack of proper education. The insufficient education of society in regard to disabled people makes them inaccessible to the world we share,” he pointed out.
He added that decision-making bodies for persons with disability issues should include a person with a disability in the forefront to promote inclusiveness, participation in the process, social inclusion, protection and accessibility.
“This is a tragic reality that we live in but a reality nonetheless. It’s clear that adequate and correct representation of the disabled is paramount when it comes to inclusion and gaining accessibility. This will also pave the way to a more empathetic reality, one where people don’t look at disabled people as broken beyond repair but rather as able entities.
People see individuals with disabilities as someone destined for failure, a lifetime of dependency on others, and an object of pity. This is not the reality; this is what people have been programmed to believe”.
He went on: “I blame this on the lack of exposure, lack of representation, and failure in adequate integration. The weak representation or lack of it at all , has been made apparent when we handled the reasons behind it, such as incapability of being onsite and failure of creators to recognize the disabled as worth mentioning, the way disability is addressed and represented as well as its importance on the long run and in achieving equality and equity”.
He argued that a deaf person isn’t characterised or labeled by their deafness or inability to hear but by their ability to lead a healthy and fruitful life despite this disability. “So let’s raise our glasses, no matter their shape and filling, to a more inclusive future, accessible to all and that truly represents society in all its aspects”.
He noted that because of the inability to take to the streets and exercise their political stances, many disabled are deemed apolitical, thus their representation is compromised. People with disabilities are rarely if ever active in politics, not because of their incapability or disinterest in being in such positions but because people with disabilities have been marginalised their whole lives and hindered by organizational barriers; barriers that have caused them to get less access to education, healthcare, services, and being allowed to engage in public and political areas.
Disability is not inability. Let us sight an example of Ghanim Al Muftah’s participation at the FIFA world cup opening ceremony on 20th November 2022. He is the goodwill ambassador of the official FIFA world cup 2022, an entrepreneur,and an undergraduate student.
His story has served to amaze and inspire people by being a prominent and exceptional example for youth and disabled people across the world. Ghanim Al-Muftahwas born with a rare condition known as Caudal Regression Syndrome (CDS). However, rather than allowing the condition to stunt his life, he has learned to overcome obstacles with positivity and leadership, this is what makes him an exceptional and inspiring character. He is currently pursuing his university degree, majoring in political sciences with an overarching goal of becoming a diplomat.
