People with disabilities in Mozambique require effective enforcement of laws

“ Swe know that passing laws alone doesn't change people's lives. The real challenge now begins, which is to transform legally recognized rights into public policies, institutions, accessible services and concrete changes in the lives of people with disabilities,” said Zeca Chauque, at the fourth annual conference on Disability and Human Rights in Maputo.

At the event, organized by Famod under the motto “From Reform to Implementation: Turning Rights into Real Changes”, the responsible asked the Mozambican authorities to put into practice the promises of protection of people with disabilities in the country.

“ We want to know how to ensure that the legislation is implemented, that the institutions are prepared, that there are financial resources, that the services are accessible and that there are effective mechanisms of monitoring and accountability”, said Chauque.

At the conference, which runs until Thursday, participants discuss the harmonisation of legislation, access to justice, social protection, data production, accessibility, inclusive public procurement and the participation of people with disabilities in the implementation and monitoring of their rights.

“ We hope that these debates will result in a national implementation agenda, with priority recommendations, concrete institutional commitments and follow-up mechanisms”, the President of Famod called for no decision on people with disabilities to be taken without its inclusion.

“ We appeal to all the institutions here. We have made clear, concrete and measurable commitments. We call on international partners to continue to support national efforts to promote the rights of people with disabilities. Inclusion requires political will, resources, coordination and, above all, commitment,” added Chauque.

Albachir Macassar, president of the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), a public institution recently designated to function as an Independent Monitoring Mechanism of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, explained that a right only becomes real when a person with disabilities can have access to public services, education, health and work.

“ It is still real when decisions that affect disabled people cease to be made without their own participation. Therefore, the approval of the law cannot be understood as a point of arrival. It is the beginning of an even more difficult phase: the implementation phase. And implementing means reviewing the sectorial legislation,” Macassar said.

It also challenged public institutions to transform legislation and administrative acts into reality, producing adequate data, ensuring accessibility, establishing effective mechanisms of accountability and transversally integrating disability into public policies.

On the other hand, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labor, Gender and Social Action, Paulo Beirão, highlighted the government's efforts to implement legislation on people with disabilities, indicating that the executive's strategic focus focuses on the rapid dissemination and operationalization of the legal instruments already approved, aiming to materialize its guidelines in effective local responses.

“ We recognize with high responsibility that our path requires a continuous improvement of legislative harmonisation and the strengthening of the legal coherence of the state,” Beirão said, expressing the commitment to consolidate the active and effective participation of people with disabilities as “protagonists and full subjects of rights” in the country’s building.