Monrovia – The President of the Christian Association of the Blind (CAB), Beyan Kota, says the Government of Liberia has signed many conventions calling for the protection of the rights of people with disabilities but enforcement of these conventions is an issue.
Report by: Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, [email protected]
Speaking during a Mass Communication class seminar at the University of Liberia Fendall Campus on the rights of people with disabilities, Mr. Kota stressed that people with disabilities in Liberia are denied their rights while also accusing the society for working against the rights of people with disabilities.
He frowned on the section of the constitution that allows the removal of the President and Vice President as well as other elected government officials if they become physical disabled due to illnesses.
“The state and those in public office must not work in the way to exclude you on the basis of sickness that lead you to permanent disabilities,” he said, referring to employers that threaten to take jobs away from employees that fall ill and are threatened with illnesses that lead to disability.
He recommends that the country must provide the means to protect the employment of people with disability by providing them training.
Outlining several of the rights of Liberians including people with disabilities as enshrined in the Liberian constitution, Mr. Kota named the rights to research, knowledge, and movement amongst other rights and said the freedom of movement of people with disabilities is essential.
“Access to public service is hindered by the way the environment is constructed and the way we respond to people with disabilities are discriminated and are violated,” he said.
Mr. Kota who said he attempted contesting the 2011 Legislative election indicated that the public perceptions about his visual impairment thwarted his ambition.
“Some people feel that electing a person with disability renders that community incapable of representing themselves and therefore they vote not on the basis of the competence of the individual with disabilities but on the basis that they will bring curse upon themselves,” he said, adding that despite the competence of people with disabilities people will not give them the equality to contest for position of sort.
The head of CAB stressed that seeking affirmative action will provide the legal framework to provide the medium by which some rights that are denied people with disabilities are ensured.
“Affirmative actions are meant to address these concerns, when people are discriminated against for long then the concern is what we can do to address those huddles that society has created,” he said.
Mr. Kota told the UL mass communication students reading human rights journalism course that many people with disabilities are not fully aware of or enjoying these fundamental rights. He said people with disabilities are denied the right to acquire education because of the lack of the necessary learning gadgets to enhance the process.
He called for exerting more pressure on government for the implementation of the United Nations Chapter on the rights of people with disabilities especially with the recent signing of the Marrakech Treaty and the signing of the treaty by the government to protect the rights on the use of the white cane to access public facilities which puts the government under responsibility for the government to protect freedom of movements for people with disabilities.
“These are all rights that the government has enacted or exceeded to but the implementation has been a problem,” he asserted adding that they are dehumanized and mistreated because they do not have these rights which they deserve.
Mr. Kota meanwhile frowned on people with visual impairment that are seeking sympathy by roaming the streets as beggars.