By Kidega Livingstone
Delays in implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by not depositing the document with the United Nations Disability Rights Committee worries persons with disabilities in South Sudan.
President Salva Kiir Mayardit on February 24, 2023, signed the convention.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) promotes, protects and ensures the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
However, Executive Director of Society Transformation for Equal Rights, Mandela Isaac Erick, said the document required to be taken to the United Nations Disability Rights Committee.
He appeals to the First Vice President for Gender, Youth, and Sport Cluster, Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior, the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare, and the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights to follow up on where the document has reached.
“They should translate the effort of President Kiir into action, and it is also the effort of persons with disabilities, and all the legislators at all levels should do something about this document,” Isaac echoed in an exclusive interview with this outlet.
After two years, South Sudan was supposed to give a report explaining the human rights report of persons with disabilities in the country after the document was deposited.
All state parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the committee on how the rights of persons with disabilities are being implemented, according to the United Nations.
The CRPD is the main international law that promotes the human rights of people with disabilities.
Adopted by the UN in December 2006, it was written in collaboration with civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, and intergovernmental organizations. Crucially, people with disabilities had a leading voice in shaping the CRPD.
Article 3 of the CRPD covers the General Principles, that is, the principles that apply to all the rights of people with disabilities.
These include respect for inherent dignity, non-discrimination, full and effective participation and inclusion in society, and respect for the differences and acceptance of people with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity.