THE RIGHT TO EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN NIGERIA

Disability based on the definition of the medical model is a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities. It is an umbrella term covering impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. This model views disability as a physical or mental issue which must be treated and cured. Also, the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), 2006, took a different approach in determining what disability is. Accordingly, the CRPD approached disability from the aspect of human rights; recognising PWDs as right holders and their impairment should not be used as a justification for denial or restriction of their human rights. The World Health Organization (W.H.O) in its World Report on Disability, 2010, shows that PWDs have poorer health outcomes, lower educational achievements, less economic participation, and higher rate of poverty than their counterparts who are without disabilities. These outcomes are partly as a result of the fact that PWDs experience barriers in accessing certain basic services which they are entitledto; such as healthcare, education, employment, transportation as well as information. These difficulties are even worse for PWDs in poor or less advantaged communities. This essay examined the right to employment of PWDs as a means of ensuring that they achieve economic and financial independence; thereby assisting them to reach their full potentials. In this regard, there are international and national legislations and policy frameworks with provisions that safeguard the general rights of PWDs in Nigeria. Pertinent questions as to the efficacy, compliance, and implementation of the existing legal frameworks, as well as issues that pose as challenges to the rights of PWDs were examined and the essay finds that the rights of PWDs, especially their right to employment has not been effectively implemented in Nigeria and that more realistic efforts has to be made to see that the rights of PWDs are safeguarded.