Convention of Rights 17: Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) forms the foundation of disability rights laws in Uganda and is the model for the Persons With Disabilities Act (PWDA) 2006. The CRPD underlines and recognizes that persons with disabilities (PWDs) are entitled to all the human rights enunciated in the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you are a PWD the rights in the CRPD are your rights, if you do not have a disability it is your duty to uphold and promote these rights.

Article 16 of the CRPD says that PWDs should be free from exploitation violence and abuse. Violence, exploitation and abuse should be prevented with gender and age sensitive assistance and support for PWDs, their families and caregivers. The assistance should provide information and education on how to avoid exploitation, violence and abuse. Protection services must be sensitive to age, gender and disability. Facilities and programs designed to support PWDs and prevent of all types of exploitation, violence and abuse, should be monitored by independent authorities. Appropriate measures should be taken to ensure anyone that suffers from exploitation, violence or abuse has full care and protection. Recovery should be in an environment that fosters health, dignity and self respect, and takes into account gender and age specific needs. Effective legislation should be put in place to protect PWDs, the legislation should be woman and child based and instances of abuse should be identified, investigated and prosecuted.

Persons with disabilities are at greater risk of violence and abuse, the report Human Rights. Yes! Chapter 6: Freedom from Torture and Other Forms of Abuse offers the following statistics:

World Report on Disability: Persons with disabilities are at greater risk of being exposed to violence.

• Persons with disabilities are at greater risk of violence than persons without disabilities.
• Research in the United States discloses that violence against persons with disabilities is 4–10 times greater than violence against persons without disabilities.
• The prevalence of sexual abuse against persons with disabilities is reported to be higher than such abuse against persons without disabilities.
• Sexual violence is particularly prevalent for persons who are institutionalized and for persons with intellectual disabilities.

In Uganda it is common for persons with mental disabilities to suffer abuse. The 2015 report Uganda: Police Strip and Parade Women with Mental Health Issues in Public talks about a case that is going to court:

For the first time in Uganda, the Kampala High Court will hear a case concerning the torture of a woman with mental health issues, Aidah Namulindwa, at the hands of police forces. The victim’s claim is being brought by Legal Action for Persons with Disabilities (LAPD) and the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC), and highlights widespread official abuses faced by people with mental health issues in the country. 

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a form of abuse that is common in Uganda. Though FGM is outlawed cases still take place. Besides threatening the life of women, the surgery can be permanently disabling and cause major problems for the mother during child birth. This 2016 article Sports Among Sabiny May End FGM says:

Among the Sapiiny community, FGM is seen as an initiation of girls into womanhood. Once cut, the girls are then deemed ready for marriage. Besides being a spiritual obligation, for Chelangat, FGM was a business. She charged 20,000 shillings and a hen for every cut. She admitted to having cut over 100 girls during her two years as a ‘surgeon’. She however, never admitted to struggling to breakaway from this practice like many surgeons had, but maintained that she had only stopped because she feared the law. Some of the dangers of FGM include excessive bleeding when not properly done and sharing of knives, which could cause diseases and fistula among other complications. However, despite the existence of this law, the practice continues, although silently among the sabiny.

 If you are a PWD you should not have to suffer abuse.

“Even Dead Bodies Must Work.”
Health, Hard Labor, and Abuse in Ugandan Prisons.

• Prisoners with mental disabilities are in some cases targeted for beatings, and even pregnant women are not spared.
• Inmates with mental disabilities at some prisons are simply isolated in punishment cells with no treatment.
• Several prisoners with mental health problems reported being targeted for beatings by inmates with disciplinary authority because of their mental disabilities.
• As Ali, one inmate in the “mental health” cell at Murchison Bay, observed, “The cleaner [an inmate with disciplinary authority] will say, ‘Stay in the wards,’ and if you go out—you are beaten. But these people [with mental disabilities] don’t see things in the normal sense. They are punishing people for being mentally sick.”

This is written in Article 16 of the CRPD in the following way:

Article 16

Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, educational and other measures to protect persons with disabilities, both within and outside the home, from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, including their gender-based aspects.

2. States Parties shall also take all appropriate measures to prevent all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse by ensuring, inter alia, appropriate forms of gender- and age-sensitive assistance and support for persons with disabilities and their families and caregivers, including through the provision of information and education on how to avoid, recognize and report instances of exploitation, violence and abuse. States Parties shall ensure that protection services are age-, gender- and disability-sensitive.

3. In order to prevent the occurrence of all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, States Parties shall ensure that all facilities and programmes designed to serve persons with disabilities are effectively monitored by independent authorities.

4. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote the physical, cognitive and psychological recovery, rehabilitation and social reintegration of persons with disabilities who become victims of any form of exploitation, violence or abuse, including through the provision of protection services. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment that fosters the health, welfare, self-respect, dignity and autonomy of the person and takes into account gender- and age-specific needs.

5. States Parties shall put in place effective legislation and policies, including women- and child-focused legislation and policies, to ensure that instances of exploitation, violence and abuse against persons with disabilities are identified, investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted.