CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS’ WITH DISABILITIES UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Abstract

It is clear that the people with disabilities have some rights that are particular to them, different from the rights that are guaranteed under the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. The paper adopted qualitative research methodology which was basically doctrinal and found that there are certain rights which are peculiar to persons with disabilities. For instance, there is no need for the law to guarantee the rights of able person of access to building or transportation or the right of able to person to engage in sports. However, all these rights are guaranteed for the people with disabilities because of their circumstances. There is a special way by which an educational training is also done for the people with disabilities which is not required in the case of the able person.  The study found further that even though all these rights are stated and contained in our law, the law itself is very dormant, as there is little or no awareness of the law, majority of the people in the society except from few people with disabilities are still very ignorant of the law. The paper recommends that if there will be adequate compliance with the law, the government must take a first step of ensuring that the there is adequate awareness of the law.