Andrew
Disability Issues
Dr Christine Peta
THE United Nations (UN) World Population Day is observed annually on July 11, to raise awareness on population issues and to reaffirm the human right to plan for a family.
Thus, in this instalment, I am focusing on the right of persons with disabilities to form their own families.
Article 23 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) addresses the subject of respect for home and family.
It directs the elimination of discrimination against persons with disabilities in marriage, family, parenthood and relationships.
A woman with albinism who married a man without disabilities said:
“When we visit my husband’s family, if I cut tomatoes, they throw them away. If I fetch water, they throw it away fearing that I will give them albinism. They put pressure on my husband to marry a woman with black skin, my marriage ended in divorce and my children are suffering.”
Many people are not willing to embrace women with disabilities as spouses of their family members because of a fallacious belief that they will “contaminate” the family with disability.
But the UNCRPD states that persons with disabilities who are of marriageable age have a right to marry and found a family on the basis of free and full consent of the intending spouses.
However, we also have a sad tale of a woman living with disabilities, who has been abused at a health institution.
“I went to the clinic to deliver my baby and the nurse shouted at me. She asked ‘why are you getting pregnant, did you not see that you are disabled?’ Why can’t you just focus on your disability and stop sleeping with men and coming here to give us more work with your disability and pregnancy, we are very busy here?”
A number of people including health care staff often assume that persons with disabilities are sick and should only consult healthcare centres for illnesses that are related to disability and not for reproductive issues. This is totally against the principles of UNCRPD.
Persons with disabilities have a right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to age-appropriate information, reproductive and family planning education, and the means necessary to enable them to exercise these rights.
The UNCRPD also states that persons with disabilities, including children, must retain their fertility on an equal basis with others. Historically, many nations have had laws that prohibit persons with disabilities from bearing children.
In 1933, Germany enacted the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring which permitted forced sterilisation of anyone who has epilepsy, mental impairment, genetic visual impairment, hereditary deafness and manic depression.
In the United States, Harry Laughlin’s 1914 Model Eugenical Sterilisation Law permitted forced sterilisation of persons who had mental impairment or who were deaf or blind.
While the above laws have since been abolished, some people still believe that all persons with disabilities will give birth to children with incapacities, yet the reality is that most impairments are non-hereditary.
The aim should not be to stop persons with disabilities from having children but to provide them with appropriate support in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities.
UNCRPD also directs States Parties to ensure the realisation of the rights and responsibilities of persons with disabilities, with regard to guardianship, wardship, trusteeship, adoption of children or similar institutions, where these concepts exist in national legislation; in all cases the best interests of the child shall be paramount.
Sadly, some parents who give birth to children with disabilities “dump” the children at institutions.
But the international board advocates for the extended family or community to care for a child with disabilities should the immediate family fail to do so. Children with disabilities have a right to family life.
Concealment, abandonment, neglect and segregation of children with disabilities is a violation of this right.
Similarly, children must not be separated from their parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child.
In no case shall a child be separated from parents on the basis of a disability of either the child or one or both of the parents.
A woman with mental impairment said: “My mother lied to me that my baby died in hospital but my sister has given birth to a baby girl. I have mental disability, but I am not stupid. How can my sister give birth to a baby without getting pregnant first? Now my daughter is six years old. When I ask for her, they say ndakupenga (I am now mad) and they tie me with ropes and lock me in a room. It’s unfair, I want my child.”
The Department of Disability Affairs in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, is currently raising awareness throughout communities, on the rights of persons with disabilities to family life. There is need for all of us to work together to eliminate discrimination of persons with disabilities within the terrain of marriage, family, parenthood and relationships.
Dr Christine Peta is a disability, policy, international development and research expert who is the National Director of Disability Affairs in Zimbabwe. She can be contacted on: [email protected]
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