By: Antoinette Abbah
She woke up one morning in excruciating pain only to realize she had a stye on her eye. That is the story of Naomi Attipoe, who is currently the President of the Ghana Blind Union in the Ningo District.
On that fateful day, what looked like a small swelling, ended up depriving Madam Atipoe of her sight, as the veins in both eyes were destroyed. Not only did she lose her sight, but also got paralyzed in the process. She suffered abuse from her husband physically, emotionally and mentally. When things got out of hand she left to stay with her family. Things became more difficult along the way as Naomi struggled to cater for herself and children.
While staying in her family house, she decided to further her education, in order to be empowered, to take care of herself and kids. However, this decision did not go down well with her family. Her woes were deepened by that decision and she suffered some forms of abuse from her family. But, Naomi, through the help of a white lady went back to school to study for the first degree. This experience, Naomi, hopes to share and change perception of abused victims to speak up.
Such experiences are not exceptional, they are commonplace in many communities in Ghana. These abuses are frequent among girls and women with different disabilities. Just like in Naomi’s case, majority of violence is perpetuated by the family or close community members and goes unreported. Other forms of abuse also exist at the workplace, or in other social settings.
The WHO estimates that 1 in 3 women, around the world are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner – a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. Women have on the large scale been at the mercy of all forms of violence while women and girls with disabilities are at greater risk of violence than those without disabilities. Abuse against them goes unreported for fear of being victimized.
Over the years, efforts to end violence against women and girls with disabilities appear to have been undermined by inadequate evidence, under-recognition, discrimination, ridicule and stigmatization.
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE FORUM
The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA and Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, have held a forum on Gender based violence Against Women and girls with disabilities. The goal was to raise awareness and build a stronger voice among people with disabilities and to campaign against all forms of violence perpetrated against them.
Ghana’s Representative at the United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Gertrude Oforiwaa Fefoame, has revealed that abused victims are often exploited, abused and neglected.
“There is no part of our lives that violence and abuse and maltreatment and neglect does not take place in a vaccum,” she noted.
She stressed the need for the State to take proactive measures to protect persons with disabilities both outside and inside the home. ”Channels should be made available for reporting all forms of violence and abuse, while urgent attention is given to such cases. It’s so annoying and so frustrating that because of disability when we report they don’t even believe us,” she said.
Madam Fefoame, gave examples of negative comments members hear, when they seek help, after being abused.
“Let’s say if it’s a case of rape, they say ‘as for you who wants to rape you.’ Definitely with such comments, how will people and institutions be ready to deal it.
“The police don’t take us serious, and so they bring it to whoever did this, how can you identify the person and just imagine if the person is visually impaired, how tall? No no no you can mistaken the voice. What color of shirt was the person wearing? So we don’t think it is true. The police officers are another problem, the home is another problem and the community and the court is another” she recounted.
She called for the strengthening of the system to give justice to persons with disabilities without discrimination.
‘President of Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, Mawunyo Yakor-Dagbah, noted that though Ghana is a signatory to a number of conventions aimed at eliminating discrimination and abuse against women, there remains implementation setbacks which continue to increase marginalization among vulnerable groups especially woman and girls with disabilities.
”The 1992 Constitution, Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715), Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846) United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child and many others, are some of the finest human rights documents we have as a country, yet women especially women and girls with disabilities, continue to face all forms of abuses in the household, workplace, or in other social setting” she said.
Deputy Director of Public Education at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Mawuli Avutor, noted that strengthening of state institutions and agencies that handle abuse cases is the one sure way to decrease all forms of abuse against women and girls with disabilities.
“There is a need to constantly build the capacities of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to handle cases brought to them by persons with disabilities. ”At CHRAJ we educate the public and our staff on ways to seek redress when such complaints come. We have also been organizing lots of public education on issues of disability and how to treat people with disabilities with dignity and respect”. he stressed.
During a panel discussion on “Building A Stronger Voice to End violence against Women and Girls with disabilities in Ghana” the federation called for policy makers to take a second look at the law on identification of perpetrators to allow visually impaired people to make use of voice identification when they are abused.
