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Tanzania yet to ratify disabled rights...
2007-12-24 09:51:14
By Rose Mwalongo
Tanzania has not ratified the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities that binds governments to provide certain services, The Guardian has learnt.
The Social Watch Report for 2007 indicates that although Tanzania has ratified a number of human rights conventions, it has failed to endorse this one.
Persons with disabilities claim that the current situation denies them social security that the agreement guarantees.
The report comes in the wake of a series of killings of albinos. Early this month, the Tanzania`s Albino Society accused the government of ignoring the killings.
At least four albinos have been killed in the past three months in incidents that are associated with superstition.
A cabinet minister recently said in an exclusive interview that the government was ``in no hurry`` to domesticate the convention, as municipal laws catered for all people, including those with disabilities.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs deputy minister Mathias Chikawe told this paper in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the country’s laws did not discriminate against people with disabilities,``Our laws give due recognition to all the people, including people with disabilities,`` said Chikawe.
Chikawe added that such persons enjoyed all the rights enjoyed by other Tanzanians.
``They have equal rights to health, education, employment and electing and being elected,`` he said. However, he added the government fully supported the Convention.
``I cannot say when we will ratify it because everything has to go through Parliament,`` said Chikawe.
Chikawe said the government had already enacted a law which requires the installation of special elevators in high rise buildings.
The National Coordinator for Southern Africa Human Rights NGO Network, Tanzania Chapter, Rehema Kerefu, mentioned lack of facilities for people with disabilities as a major setback.
``The Convention calls upon all member countries to take into account the plight of people with disabilities. For instance, schools are supposed to set special doors, gates and latrines for people with disabilities,`` Kerefu said.
She said most facilities had no such provision. He cited the public transport system, which made it difficult for handicapped individuals to board and disembark from buses.
``There are a lot of tall buildings. Some have no elevators, let alone special elevators,`` said Kerefu.
Speaking on the same issue, the chairman of an organization for people with disabilities, Audax Balthazar, said: ``It hurts us a lot because we have no base for demanding for our rights.
The UN Convention commits governments. Failure to sign it has made our organization toothless,`` said Balthazar. He said he had been in 20 regions of Tanzania and seen people with disabilities living in a pathetic state.
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