Inclusion of Women with Disabilities in Inclusive Sustainable Development

Wamundila Waliuya
Founding President
Disability Rights Watch 

The issue of full and effective participation of women in inclusive sustainable development has in the past 20 years been escalating to such an extent that today women have taken over most of the leadership positions especially in the education and business sectors. The myth of “women can not lead: they must remain in the kitchen” is quickly thinning down. It is in the past twenty years that we have witnessed the emergence of women Presidents; women Vice Presidents; women Managing Directors; women engineers; women farmers; women Police Commissioners and Inspector Generals; women pilots and so on. The list is inexhaustible. At the same time we have witnessed the emerging strong organisations like: Women for Change; Women in Mining; Women in Health; Women in Law; Women in Agriculture; Women in Business; Women in Education; Women in Politics; Women in Construction; Women with Influence; Women in Religion; Women in Manufacture ring; Women in Environment and so on. Again the list is long. Amazing! I did a search and never found ‘Women in the Kitchen’ or ‘Women in Marriage’.

I am truly impressed with this. This is not a shock. It has been as a result of robust strategic advocacy works by women themselves. Women stood and positioned their voice where it needed to be. I write this article as a contribution to the celebrations of the International Women’s Day 2017 which falls on 8^th March. The theme of this year’s day is “50:50 in the workplace” at global level. The theme is befitting.

The International Women's Day is a day of celebration globally, for the social, economic and political achievement of women. It is a day of reflection on the past and present achievements of women in the world. At the same time, the day is for mapping the future achievements of women. In view of this the challenge is to ensure that the women of the past are proud, the women of today are motivated and the women of tomorrow are focused.

As I thought through, my heart suddenly felt low! Seriously, I did not understand why I felt low! I spent time to reflect on this year’s day before putting my fingers to the keyboard. I just felt low after realising that one group of women was clearly missing on the long lists of “women…” or “women in …” I could not get to a reasonable conclusion on why this group of women was missing in the impressive development surrounding women. Where are the women with disabilities? I asked myself on whether they remain as “women meant for the kitchen”. Unfortunately they are missing even in the kitchen. They are missing in all sectors outlined above. I know they exist. But where are they?

Many international human rights instruments, particularly the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, recognise the fact that women with disabilities face multiple-discrimination. This discrimination arises from their being women, in a world of gender imbalance; their being women with disabilities in a world of discrimination on the basis of disability; their low socio-economic status in a world of social stratification on the basis of socio-economic status. One other factor is that they remain in multiple-discrimination on the basis of their being silent on many matters that affect them both directly and indirectly. This may not be absolutely true but it contributes to their being left behind. This is an unfortunate situation which should be addressed. But who should take the lead in addressing this gap?

It should start with women with disabilities themselves. I feel so. I also believe so. Let us look at how liberation struggles started. The African liberation struggle from the colonial masters started with the Africans themselves. All African States which were in the powerful hands of the Europeans are now in the hands of Africans. Originally, Africans were considered illiterate; barbaric; primitive and ignorant. Today African leaders have got influence in the world. They lead all the former European colonies, the African nations.

In the United States, the Black Consciousness Movement was started by African Americans who were originally called by the derogative term “negroes”. They spoke, struggled and some were assassinated. But from somewhere, Barrack Obama emerged. He has been rated one of the best US Presidents. It is all because of the work of the affected black American communities. We still look forward to another real black American President. We also look forward to a female American President. The emergence of Hilary Clinton is all about the efforts of women ensuring that they are present.

I once worked in the field of HIV and AIDS. Unfortunately, I participated in designing HIV and AIDS awareness materials around 1988. HIV and AIDS were depicted with pictures of eagles, skeletons, graves and the ‘death-trap’. Everything about the people who were diagnosed positive was treated with serious stigma and discrimination. One or two persons who were diagnosed positive came out in the open and spoke about it aggressively. HIV and AIDS was originally a pure medical issue. After the affected and infected spoke about their rights consistently, it changed its socio-legal status to being a human rights issue. Today, discrimination of any person on the basis of their HIV or health status is prohibited. This is practical as we can see many persons who are HIV positive living happily and openly. They are taking up very high political, business and traditional leadership positions. It is because they came out of the self-discrimination shell and spoke out without fear. Currently, no one debates the rights of persons with HIV and AIDS conditions when it comes to exercise of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. Their inherent dignity is fully recognised and respected. Consistency and resilience in strategic advocacy is the key!

It all begins within the conscious of the affected. The affected groups referred to above remained conscious of their inherent dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms. It does not help to remain in a shell for ever. In most African States and language there is a saying which means, “A baby who does not cry dies while in the back carrier of their mother”. This means that if women with disabilities do not aggressively speak out on the promotion and protection of their social, economic, cultural, political and civil rights, they will remain in the margins of society’s development. They will remain being considered instruments of philanthropy. This is not ideal in this era of inclusive development.

It is important that women with disabilities and their representative organisations stand today to look at situation in terms of effective participation and inclusion in sustainable development. This calls for bold stances by a selected group of women with disabilities to identify the real issues that affect them and need to be redressed. This requires a clear analysis of their problems. Without a clear and comprehensive analysis of their problems, women with disabilities may not be able to map a clear strategic advocacy plan for their inclusion in sustainable development. Of course the comprehensive analysis of their problems should include an analysis of their human rights situation in general. This may sound complicated for women with disabilities but there are a lot of organisation of women who have done this. Such organisations are usually willing to work with organisations of women with disabilities. One initial strategy is to network and affiliate themselves to alliances or federations of women organisations like the NGO Coordinating Council (NGOCC) in Zambia. Such networks exist in all African States.

It is also very important that women with disabilities and their representative organisation carry out strategic advocacy capacity assessments. This will help them clarify their organisational position in terms of their strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats. This is very essential because it assists in enhancing all the strength the organisations have. It will assist the organisations to ensure that they penetrate and utilize to the maximum all the opportunities existing outside their organisations. For instance, the opportunity for affiliation to women organisation alliances or federations or networks. A capacity assessment process also assists in determining the weaknesses of the women and their representative organisations in terms of their strategic advocacy skills, resource mobilisation skills and the general organisational development matters. Such an assessment for women with disabilities and their representative organisations will help in building the strategic advocacy capacities of their organisations.

Apart from the issues raised above, it is very critical to uphold good governance within the organisation of and for women with disabilities. Good governance means, in simple terms; accountability; transparency; rule of law; equal participation of women and men(despite the organisation being a women organisation); Participation of persons with disabilities who require more intensive support; Participation of children and youths with disabilities; contribution of the elderly persons with disabilities. Inclusion means the participation of persons without disabilities. Obviously, the active participation of women without disabilities would contribute to the effective inclusion of women with disabilities in sustainable development.

This obviously demands that women with disabilities and their representative organisations should reflect on the voices and the legacy of those women who founded the movement of women with disabilities. Apart from reflect on the voices and legacy, they should sound and amplify their voices and legacy today. This amplification of the voices and legacy includes the exercise and dissemination of the messages from the voices and legacy. Furthermore, the women with disabilities of today should transmit and transfer the voices and legacy of the gone women to the future women with disabilities. These are the girls and youths with disabilities. The current crop of women with disabilities should also transmit and transfer their vision to the girls and female youths with disabilities. They should transfer their successes, failures, challenges and opportunities for the future generation of women with disabilities.

Women with disabilities and their representative organisations should try by all means to document the successes of the past and current women with disabilities who have been successful or are currently successful. Their stories should be documented and published with world-wide publicity. This will contribute into motivating the current young crop and future group of women with disabilities. Every successful woman always has a story behind another successful woman who has been their inspiration and motivation. This is very essential among women with disabilities. Currently, this is absent! On the other hand, this is heavily prominent among women without disabilities. A lot of profiles, books, feature and documentaries exist to motivate and inspire girls and young women to be one of the ‘Women in…’ as outlined in my preamble, for instance ‘Women in Law’.

Women with disabilities should now begin to reflect on how they support each other. This requires a deliberate and voluntary effort of any of the women with a disability to pick up the ‘voice-shovel’ and start shoveling her experiences into other women’s minds. This is how revolutions begin! There is need for a revolutionary approach by women with disabilities towards the respect of their inherent dignity and recognition of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. This must be done or else…discrimination continues.

Factually, for the current generation of women with disabilities to transmit and transfer the voices of the past women and their own voices, they need to exhibit clear knowledge of the legal rights of persons with disabilities, and in particular, the rights of women with disabilities.

Girls, youths and women with disabilities should not only wait to be called upon to participate. They should be proactive in terms of visibility at all times. They should be specifically be visible during all  national and international celebrations like the Youth Day; International Labour Day; Africa Freedom Day; Heroes and Unity Day (where are the women heroes with disabilities?); Farmers’ Day (Women with Disabilities in Agriculture); Independence Day (Women with Disabilities in Politics). I still raise the question: where are women with disabilities?

While we debate the issue of multiple-discrimination for girls and women with disabilities, there is the untold story of girls and women with cerebral palsy; girls and women with mental and intellectual disabilities; girls and women with albinism; girls and women with deafblindness and girls with multiple disabilities. Where is their human rights space? Where is the protection of their inherent dignity as human beings? Deliberately, do women leaders with disabilities and the representative organisations really understand this situation. If so, what advocacy action have they been taking.

In my discussion, I have deliberately left out the role of the State in promoting and protecting the rights of women with disabilities. I have also deliberately left out the role of the women movement at large. I again have left out the important role of men. The purpose is simple: I want to engender a sense of strategic advocacy in the women with disabilities.