A New Nigeria that Protects the Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities is POssible!
Women with disabilities face significantly more difficulties – in both public and private spheres – in attaining access to adequate housing, health, education, vocational training and employment, and are more likely to be institutionalized.
They also experience inequality in hiring, promotion rates and pay for equal work, access to training and retraining, credit and other productive resources, and rarely participate in economic decision-making.
Often, women with disabilities are invisible and marginalized in society, including among those promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, and those promoting gender equality and the advancement of women. The exclusion of women with disabilities from decision-making spaces has for a long time impoverished our societies. It masks the root causes of the discrimination they face, allows the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes, both concerning gender and disability, and leads to innumerable human rights violations.
It is high time to put an end to this state of affairs and take a firm commitment to reverse the exclusion of women and girls with disabilities. The first step in this direction must be the acknowledgment of the untapped strength and resilience of women and girls with disabilities, so that they themselves can lead the way forward.