Disability Justice in an African Context: The Human Rights Approach

Abstract

This chapter discusses the human rights-based approach to disability justice through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 (the Convention or CRPD) and the emerging African regional disability human rights framework. Through anecdotes from Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and Kenya, the chapter argues that it is not the absence of laws and policies that has been the obstacle to disability justice in Africa, but rather the inability of existing human rights laws and policies to challenge negative cultural beliefs and social perceptions of disability. The recently established Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa 2018 (the Protocol) presents a unique opportunity to address this gap. However, the chapter will raise doubts about whether the Protocol can make a meaningful impact on the lives of people with disabilities in Africa without a substantial revision to the order in which duties are presented and articulated in the regional instrument.