Celebrated on December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities provides an opportunity to raise awareness among the Haitian population and improve the situation of this most often marginalized segment. Haiti ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRDPH) in 2009. Consequently, it has expressed its desire to improve the structures and services intended for this category in collaboration with numerous international organizations. However, even today, women and girls living with disabilities encounter many social and structural obstacles to fully enjoy the protections to which they are entitled.

Defenseurs Plus, an organization for the defense of human rights, notes that among the challenges to be overcome, there is the lack of access to education, to health, the lack of participation in political affairs. In addition, the lack of access to justice for women and girls with disabilities, stereotypes and discriminatory practices are real challenges. It also notes their low presence in the public service. The committee on the rights of persons with disabilities indicated that the number of persons with disabilities is estimated in Haiti at 10%, or one million of the population.
Indeed, few sectors of Haitian society are organized in such a way as to facilitate their integration. Performance halls, public buildings, public transit, schools, among others, are neither equipped nor equipped to take their specific needs into account. Defenders Plus feels concerned about the situation of women and girls with disabilities and pleads for full integration of this group.

In the employment sector, the presence of women living with a physical disability is less and less visible day by day. And those who work do not enjoy a decent salary. The Haitian labor code makes no mention of the treatment given to people with disabilities. The socioeconomic situation of these people is characterized by inequalities compared to the rest of the Haitian population. Defenseurs Plus deplores the treatment given to this category of the population and believes that every human person, regardless of their disability, has the right to a decent life.
Defenseurs Plus urges state authorities to facilitate the effective inclusion of women and girls living with disabilities in all spheres of public and political life. By strengthening the capacity of the state institutions concerned to implement public policies that adequately meet their mission. And take the opportunity to encourage initiatives from other sectors that play an active role in ensuring that the rights of all people with disabilities are respected.

Done in Port-au-Prince, December 2, 2022

Antonal MORTIME
Co-Director
Tel: (509) 3715 72 99