CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Background of the study

       Over one billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability, and disability prevalence is higher for developing countries. It is imperative to assert that, one-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people experience significant disabilities. Persons with disabilities, on average as a group, are more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic outcomes than persons without disabilities, such as less education, poorer health outcomes, lower levels of employment, and higher poverty rates. A country’s economic, legislative, physical, and social environment may create or maintain barriers to the participation of people with disabilities in economic, civic, and community life. Barriers include inaccessible buildings, lack of transport, lower access to information and communication technology (ICT), inadequate standards, lower level of services and funding for those services, as well as too little data and analysis for evidence based, efficient, and effective policies (United Nations, n. d).

      Due to various barriers and some as mentioned above, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was adopted in 2006, opened for signatures in 2007 and came into force in 2008; since then it has been ratified by 173 countries. This Convention covers a wide range of areas and aspects of life that affect the rights of disabled persons, including the right to life through to the right to education, employment, health and rehabilitation, an adequate standard of living and social protection, family life, independent living, and participation in cultural and in political and public life. These are areas in which disabled persons have a right to equal opportunities and non-discrimination on the ground of disability. It is worth mentioning that, the UNCRPD does not only determine the rights that disabled persons have in these areas. It also puts a lot of weight on the importance of disabled people’s autonomy, choice and control over their own lives, and participation in decision-making processes that affect them. It is their viewpoints which matter most and it is they who must ultimately decide whether the implementation of the UNCRPD is translating into tangible positive changes in their lives (United Nations, 2006).

     In about over the past five or six decades, disabled people and their partners have organized themselves into a political and social force to challenge the oppression and exclusion experienced by disabled people (Campbell and Oliver, 1996). The disability rights movement is very often viewed as the last civil rights movement in a long series of liberation movements, namely the workers’ movement, the Black-American civil rights movement and the women’s movement. These movements all engaged in the long historical struggle for human and civil rights. Moreover, even in places where some groups of persons with disabilities are considered to have organized themselves relatively early, such as Sweden, other groups mentioned above had already organized themselves before them (Dredger, 1989). Dredger adds that, Roberts one of the leading pioneers of the international Disability Rights Movement claims that a number of lessons were learnt from previous movements particularly from the Black-Americans civil rights movement: “If we have learned one thing from the civil rights movement in the U.S., it’s that when others speak for you, you lose”. Furthermore, it is in this sense that slogans such as “Our bodies, ourselves” and “Power to the people” are often recognized as precedents to the slogan used by persons with disabilities, “Nothing about us without us” (Charlton, 1998).

    It is worth mentioning that, disability has traditionally been generally viewed as a failing on the part of the individual, as a personal tragedy and as a burden on the rest of society. On a global perspective, most countries and societies, for a long time, disability has mostly been described in terms of medical or biological deficits, with a focus on abnormality, disorders and conditions and how these were the cause of functional limitation and ‘disability’ (Barnes, Colin and Mercer, 2010). However, French and Swain (2008) states that disabilities are based on the general assumption that the difficulties experienced by disabled people are a direct result of their physical, sensory or intellectual impairment. Such descriptions of disability only lead to the interpretation of disabled people as individuals who are helpless, dependent, and incapable of making their own decisions. In addition, the opinions of persons with disabilities on the subject of disability are often not awarded with the same credibility and validity as the opinions of ‘experts’, particularly those of medical and health and social care professionals.

    As a result of these views and assumptions, disabled people are often considered to be one of the most oppressed groups in society with non-disabled people and organizations, including professionals and charities, as being the cause of this oppression (Shakespeare, 2013).

    It is important to mention that, following the oppression experienced by disabled people in all aspects of their lives, a disability rights movement was formed. The movement stemmed from disabled people’s realization that their needs were not being met and that they did not have access to the same rights as the rest of society. Disabled people also realized that societies were built without their input and active participation (Dredger, 1989). In addition, disabled people came to realize that civil rights, rather than charity or pity, was the answer to solving their problems. It was in the 1980s that disabled people all over the world took up the fight for equality and participation on an equal basis with others. A result of this realization was one of the biggest gatherings, of over four hundred disabled people, from fifty-three countries, in Singapore, in 1981 to form what is now known as Disabled People’s International (DPI) (DPI, 1982).

      According to Dredger (1989:48), disabled people gathered for one of the largest meetings with the aim “to proclaim they would no longer be silent”. The formation of DPI came after a landmark event, the walking out of disabled people from the Rehabilitation International (RI) conference in Winnipeg, Canada in 1980. This was a historical move which saw disabled people standing up to and challenging the dominance of health professionals who till then tended to control the disability agenda. DPI’s mandate is to be the direct voice of disabled people across the world. It is considered to be the first international organization which successfully brings together people of different impairments with the aim of creating a united voice. It firmly believes in and was set up on the premise that disabled people are to be included in all aspects of society and to participate with the same rights as everyone else. DPI is a holder of the belief that there is strength in numbers and that speaking unitedly disabled people’s voices can have a greater impact than when speaking on their own (Mji et al, 2009). DPI is an activist-oriented organization and has since lobbied both governments and the United Nations and has more recently been largely instrumental in the drafting of the UNCRPD. However, the establishment of DPI has also led to other previous important events and initiatives which have certainly paved the way for the development of the UNCRPD, namely: the declaration by the UN of 1981 as the International Year of the Disabled Persons (IYPD); the World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons; the proclamation by the UN of the Decade of Disabled Persons (1982-1992) which resulted in the drawing up of the Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities; and the creation of a large number of disabled persons-led organizations (Howell, Chalklen and Albert’s, 2006).

        According to Organizations of persons with disabilities in Cameroon (OPDs), it is estimated that 2.7 percent of the population are living with a disability. The Disability Inclusion and the

Sustainable Development Goals further stated that this represented 15 per cent of Cameroon’s population.

     Furthermore, the report, based on research done in collaboration with United Kingdom’s Leonard Cheshire Disability, further disclosed that the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics identified visual, hearing, physical, communication and intellectual impairments as the prevalent forms of disability in Cameroon. In addition, a higher percentage of persons living with disabilities is constituted by hearing and visual disabilities and most persons with disabilities live in rural areas where access to basic services is limited.

    The Disability Act Number 6 of 2012, however, viewed ‘disability’ as a permanent physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment that alone, or in a combination with social or environmental barriers, hinders the ability of a person to fully or effectively participate in society on an equal basis with Global awareness of disability-inclusive development is increasing. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) promotes the full integration of persons with disabilities in societies. The CRPD specifically references the importance of international development in addressing the rights of persons with disabilities.

Conflict Prevention and Management for selected Disability Organizations in Cameroon: Voices of stakeholders a case of Nothing about Us without Us slogan which is Latin: word which means “Nihil de nobis, sine nobis” and it has been used to communicate the idea that no policy should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members of the group(s) affected by that policy but stakeholders in selected disabled peoples organizations.

1.2 Statement of the problem 

     It is worth mentioning that, a range of international documents have highlighted that disability is a human rights issue, including the World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled People (1982), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities (1993). More than 40 nations adopted disability discrimination legislation during the 1990s. It is paramount to mention that, Cameroon joined the language of understanding and valuing the affairs of persons with disabilities. In this regard, Zambia just like other countries, upholds the values availed by (CRPD) the most recent, and the most extensive recognition of the human rights of persons with disabilities which outlines the civil, cultural, political, social and economic rights of persons with disabilities, with its purpose is to ‘promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. 

   However, there is surprisingly little survey-based research on Conflict Prevention and Management for selected Disability Organizations in the south west region of Cameroo, and especially on the effect of nothing about us without us slogan. The nresearch is to fill the gap by documenting the current state of conflicts created through the use of the slogan in selected disabled people’s organizations. 

1.3 Research questions

1. What kinds of conflicts are created by the use of the slogan ‘nothing about us without us’?
2. What are the views of stakeholders on the use of the slogan in addressing disability issues?
3. What are some of the challenges Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) face through the use of the slogan ‘nothing about us without us’?
4. What are some of the suggested solutions in the prevention and management of conflicts in disability organizations?

1.4: HYPOTHESIS

1. Different kinds of conflicts are created by the use of the slogan ‘nothing about us without us’.
2. Stakeholders has several views on the use of the slogan in addressing disability issues.
3. Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) face some challenges through the use of the slogan ‘nothing about us without us’
4. There are some suggested solutions in the prevention and management of conflicts in disability organizations.

1. 5: General objective of the study

   The general objective of the study is to explore the conflicts created by use of “Nothing about Us without Us” as perceived by various stakeholders in the disability fraternity. 

1.5.1: Specific objectives

The objectives of the study is to:-

       Establish conflicts created by the use of the slogan ‘nothing about us without us’ in

The Southwest region of Cameroon with specific focus of Meme and Fako Divisions

       Determine views of stakeholders on the use of the slogan in addressing disability issues in Southwest region of Cameroon with specific focus of Meme and Fako Divisions.

       Establish challenges Persons with disabilities face through the use of the slogan ‘Nothing about Us without Us’