A Portrait of the Rights of Children with Disabilities in Nigeria: A Policy Review

Rose Uzoma Elekanachi (), Keiko Shikako, Laurie Snider and Noemi Dahan-Oliel
Additional contact information
Rose Uzoma Elekanachi: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Keiko Shikako: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Laurie Snider: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Noemi Dahan-Oliel: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: Worldwide, 200 million children experience disability, with the vast majority living in low- and middle-income countries. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) places great importance on the rights of all children for the opportunities for survival, growth, health, and development. A subsequent document, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), identifies children with disabilities as rights bearers who should be considered in all policies and programming worldwide. Nigeria, in 1991 and 2010, ratified the CRC and the CRPD, respectively. Nonetheless, knowledge of the extent to which their disability and child-directed policies considers these two key conventions, in ensuring that children and children with disabilities have access to care within their right remains limited. This study examined the extent to which Nigeria’s current disability and childhood policies have integrated the two child and disability related conventions from the UN. Using a structured search of databases and Nigerian federal and state government websites, we conducted a policy review to identify their disability and child-related disability policies. We also included the CRC and CRPD reports submitted by the Nigerian government to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (2008 and 2010 cyclical year). A thematic analysis, based on the CRC and CRPD report, identified the following six themes: participation, support systems, awareness raising, factors associated with adherence to the CRC, laws and rights, and services. The review showed that the available Nigerian disability policies were federal, with some state policies which aligned with the CRC and CRPD. Also identified was the lack of disability policies specific to children and their families. We concluded that, to ensure proper inclusion of the rights of all children, including those with disabilities, in Nigeria there is a need for a more optimal uptake of recommendations of the CRC and CRPD as laid out by the UN.

Keywords: policy; review; children; disability; human rights; Nigeria; low/middle-income countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/21/6996/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/21/6996/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:21:p:6996-:d:1270236

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().