Children with disabilities and organisations that represent people with disabilities are being left behind in the fight against child marriages.
According to Article 1 of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, persons with disabilities are people who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
Lovemore Chidemo, Executive Director of Zimbabwe Deaf Media Trust said that not much is being done to address the problem of child marriages among children with disabilities. “Most campaigns do not specifically target persons with disabilities, this can be said about many other areas including campaigns against gender based violence. Disability has not been mainstreamed in many programmes and service providers have limited capacity to work with persons with disabilities,” he said.
Mr. Chidemo went on to say that the issue of child marriages relating to children with disabilities is something that society has been avoiding talking about. Child marriages is very prevalent among this group as many drop out of school as many families do not see the value of educating girls with disabilities. He highlighted that an even bigger and related challenge is that of early pregnancies as many children with disabilities are raped, especially during lockdown periods like the Covid 19 induced ones that most countries are experiencing.
Negative attitudes and stigma against people with disabilities are exacerbating their plight. These negative perceptions and assumptions include the belief that women and girls with disabilities do not marry, leading to a lack of attention to the issue. Yet most of the girls are more vulnerable especially in rural areas where the girl child is regarded as a second class citizen. Reports indicate that the girl child with disability is also preyed on by ritualists who believe that having sex with someone with a disability can chase away bad luck and other ailments. This, toppled with lack of information on sexual reproductive health and other basic data makes it a challenge for people with disabilities. Most service providers do not have sign language interpreters or information available on braille or even wheelchair ramps to cater for people with disabilities. This makes it impossible to share relevant facts to better enlighten people with disabilities on issues that affect them.
Sign Language Interpreter Agbail Matare said that children with disabilities experience barriers to sexual and reproductive health. “Children are being left behind because no one is taking the time to communicate to them in the language they understand. It starts off with no one talking to them about sex and even what the law says about issues to do with abuse of minors. No one thinks it’s important to have the sex talk with a child with disability which is wrong. Discrimination by service providers and community members is rife and there is need for interventions as a matter of urgency,” she said. Matare pointed out that most of the people she interprets for would be ignorant of their rights and the laws that govern the country. She encouraged prioritisation of matters that dealt with disabilities in programme implementation across all sectors.
Chidemo agreed with this thought and said that in as much as child marriages are rife where children with disabilities are concerned “it is not easy to get data because those who do research on these issues do not include disability. Lack of disaggregated data makes interventions in issues to do with disability quite difficult,” said Chidemo.
The UN has noted the need for disability mainstreaming in interventions addressing child marriage. In June 2017 the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian settings. The resolution highlighted the “need for States to improve the collection and use of quantitative, qualitative and comparable data on violence against women and harmful practices, disaggregated by sex, age and disability. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that a mentally or physically disabled child should enjoy a full and decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance and facilitate the child’s active participation in the community. It further states that whenever possible, the disabled child should have free access to education, training, health care services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment and recreation opportunities. This, in a manner conducive to the child’s achieving the fullest possible social integration and individual development, including his or her cultural and spiritual development. States should also promote the exchange of appropriate information in the field of preventive health care and of medical, psychological and functional treatment of disabled children, including dissemination of and access to information concerning methods of rehabilitation, education and vocational services.