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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Framing Disability Rights within African Human Rights Movements
- 2 Legislation as a Care Institution? The CRPD and Rights of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities in South Africa
- 3 Examining the Implementation of Inclusive Education in Zimbabwe
- 4 Barriers to the Implementation of Education Article 24 of the CRPD in Kenya
- 5 A Disabled Disability Movement: The Paradox of Participation in Uganda
- 6 Implementation of the CRPD in Ethiopia: Grassroots Perspectives from the University of Gondar Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme
- 7 Knowledge and Utilization of the CRPD and Personswith Disability Act 715 of Ghana among Deaf People
- 8 CRPD Article 6 – Vulnerabilities of Women with Disabilities: Recommendations for the Disability Movement and Other Stakeholders in Ghana
- 9 Assessing the Benefits of the CRPD in Cameroon: The Experience of Persons with Disabilities in the Buea Municipality
- 10 African Ontology, Albinism, and Human Rights
- Conclusion
- Index
9 - Assessing the Benefits of the CRPD in Cameroon: The Experience of Persons with Disabilities in the Buea Municipality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Framing Disability Rights within African Human Rights Movements
- 2 Legislation as a Care Institution? The CRPD and Rights of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities in South Africa
- 3 Examining the Implementation of Inclusive Education in Zimbabwe
- 4 Barriers to the Implementation of Education Article 24 of the CRPD in Kenya
- 5 A Disabled Disability Movement: The Paradox of Participation in Uganda
- 6 Implementation of the CRPD in Ethiopia: Grassroots Perspectives from the University of Gondar Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme
- 7 Knowledge and Utilization of the CRPD and Personswith Disability Act 715 of Ghana among Deaf People
- 8 CRPD Article 6 – Vulnerabilities of Women with Disabilities: Recommendations for the Disability Movement and Other Stakeholders in Ghana
- 9 Assessing the Benefits of the CRPD in Cameroon: The Experience of Persons with Disabilities in the Buea Municipality
- 10 African Ontology, Albinism, and Human Rights
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Persons with disabilities (PwDs) are indisputably one of the most marginalized groups in all societies around the world. The majority of them are poor and record low outcomes in education, employment, health, and political participation (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). There is a positive correlation between disability and poverty: each can be a cause and a consequence of the other (Braithwaite and Mont, 2009; Filmer, 2008; Mitra, 2006; Trani and Loeb, 2010). Although the challenges faced by PwDs are global phenomena, they are worse for those in the Global South than the Global North, including countries in Africa (WHO, 2011). In Cameroon, PwDs encounter discrimination in all spheres of life, and their access to socio-economic resources, such as education, employment and healthcare, is limited. They often start school at older ages than their colleagues without disabilities, and they have a much higher tendency to drop out. The majority of children with disabilities (CwDs) who manage to access education do so in special schools, which are often poorly resourced and have weak capacities to meet their needs (WHO, 2011). As a result, PwDs have fewer educational qualifications and are more likely to be unemployed. When employed, they usually perform menial jobs with meagre wages.
These issues are true globally, but they are especially stark in the Global South, as (for example) Mitra and Sambamoorthi (2009) show in their 2009 study on India, and as Trani and Loeb (2012) demonstrate in an interesting comparison of Afghanistan and Zambia. Other evidence from Africa includes, to name a few studies, Cramm, Lorenzo, and Nieboer's (2014) comparison of education and employment among South African YwDs and their peers and Échevin's (2013) analysis of discrimination in education and employment among PwDs in Cape Verde. The main factors leading to exclusion from mainstream activities include prejudice and stereotypical attitudes arising from misconceptions about disability, as well as beliefs that PwDs are less human than their counterparts without disabilities (Shier, Graham, and Jones, 2009). It is in recognition of the vulnerability of PwDs that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2006.
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- Information
- Disability Rights and Inclusiveness in AfricaThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, challenges and change, pp. 211 - 230Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022