The expectations of the people at home, even close relatives would always say something like, 'It... more The expectations of the people at home, even close relatives would always say something like, 'It was the spirit from the wife that caused the disability.' This attitude even threatened the marriage of my father and mother. They had to consult a traditional healer to say it was not their fault. Otherwise, it would have led to divorce. There are many divorces as a result of disablement in the villages. 1 The purpose of this work is to examine the nature or form of disability rights, and whether the African regional human rights system adequately protects them. In other words, the study tries to understand whether the current appalling status of people living with disabilities can be blamed on normative paucity of the African human rights system. The author will therefore comb the African human rights instruments to determine this, and based on the findings, will assess the propriety or otherwise of adopting a disability specific instrument for the continent and recommend accordingly. 1 Ranga Mapindu a Zimbabwean, quoted in F Armstrong and L Barton, Disability, Human Rights and Education: Cross-cultural perspectives Open University Press, Buckingham (1999) 11. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii PREFACE iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the study 1.2 Research question 1.3 Rationale for research 1.4 Literature review 1.5 Limitation of study 1.6 Methodology 1.7 Chapter outline CHAPTER 2: DEFINING DISABILITY 2.1 Disability-an elusive term 2.2 WHO definition of disability 2.3 Changing perceptions on disability 10 2.3.1 Human dignity as a value 10 2.3.2 Equality as a value 11 2.4. Disability and international law-the era of soft laws 11 2.4.1 Disability under the Convention 14 2.5 Disability rights in Africa 15 2.6 Conclusion 16 vi CHAPTER 3: UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF DISABILITY RIGHTS 3.1 Introduction 3.2 State's duty to respect, fulfil and protect disability rights 3.2.1 The nature of disability rights 3.2.2 Non-discrimination, the common thread in disability rights 3.3 Conclusion CHAPTER 3: DISABILITY RIGHTS UNDER THE AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The UN human rights system 4.3 The African human rights system 4.3.1 The African Charter 4.3.2 Non-discrimination under the Charter 4.3.3 How does the African Charter compare with the Inter-American Disability Convention 4.3.4 The African Children's Charter 4.3.5 The Women's Protocol 4.3.6 The African Democracy Charter 4.3.7 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa 4.3.8 Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair Trial 4.4 National Constitutions and disability rights 4.5 African Commission jurisprudence on disability rights 4.6 The Commission's view on discrimination 4.6.1 Human dignity as a human right 4.6.2 Jurisprudential limitation 4.7 Conclusion CHAPTER 5: DOES AFRICA NEED A DISABILITY-SPECIFIC INSTRUMENT? 5.1 vii 5.6 Is a specific instrument the panacea? 5.7 Conclusion CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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