Violence against Women living with Disabilities in Fako division: implications on right to development

ABSTRACT

According to the United Nations Convention on Persons with Disabilities, disability summarizes a great number of different functional limitations occurring in any population, in any country of the world. Despite the existence of laws for the protection of rights of women with disabilities in Cameroon, Women with Disabilities still suffer gross violence and little or no protection. The study examines the various forms of violence against Women with Disabilities, the legal institutional and policy frameworks for the protection of the Rights of Women with Disabilities as well as the effectiveness of the laws in the protection of Women with Disabilities against violence and the impact on right to development. The study adopts the qualitative research methodology with the use of doctrinal method where information was collected via primary and secondary sources. The findings revealed that the women with disabilities are subjected to many forms of violence, domestic violence, and marital rape amongst others. The findings further reveal various instruments that exist for the protection of women with disabilities but their implementation in protecting the laws is not effective. We also found that, the protection of women with disabilities against violence comes with a plethora of challenges, notably weaknesses in enforcement of instruments. The resultant policy implications from the findings were categorized based on the objectives of the study. From these implications, important policy recommendations which include; Adopt and implement a specific law that ensures the prevention and fight against all forms of violence against women with disability, followed by education and public   awareness programs on the need to eradicate violence against women with disability