Rights of disabled people neglected

More than 80 million people are living with disabilities in Africa - placing an enormous burden on already overstretched services, a pan-African conference has heard.

The number of disabled people living on the continent is also expected to rise due to wars and poverty, said Khalfan Khalfan, the chairman of the Pan-African Federation of Disabled Persons (PAFOD). The conference, which opened in Addis Ababa on Monday, was held to mark the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities (1999-2009).

Khalfan said many countries were still failing to tap the huge potential of disabled people to help alleviate their suffering. Many disabled Africans still have their rights neglected even though the United Nations declared 1983 to 1992 as the UN Decade of the Disabled Person. He said more than 90 percent of disabled Africans had little or no access to services or opportunities to develop their productive capacities.

"It clearly shows that their human resource development potential will remain untapped and millions will remain dependent," he warned. "Neglecting the needs of people with disabilities not only relegates their human rights, but it is potentially detrimental to the effort to sustain national growth and development."

Khalfan said that even though the UN launched a decade of the disabled, very few countries took on board the recommendations. He told the four-day regional conference that the strategy had been "under-resourced and inappropriately" marked. Khalfan also said that developed countries had benefited while developing countries did not implement a single recommendation.

"It is now the right time for African governments to take action that would promote the decade’s objectives so that the rights and equal opportunities for people with disabilities can be realised," he said.

Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis launched a rallying cry at the opening of the conference to help change the lives of people who are disabled. He called on the UN, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and other organisations to join forces to tackle the problems faced by disabled people. He also said the continent's governments should lead the way. "This is a task which no one government or organisation can successfully tackle single-handedly," he stressed.

President Girma pledged provide the necessary rehabilitation services and institutional care to disabled persons as far as the modest resources of the country permitted. He said that Ethiopia has put in place mechanisms which had helped to achieve positive changes in the lives of the disabled persons in the country, but more had to be done.

The conference is the first of its kind in Africa and is attended by 50 participants representing African and European countries.