Representatives of people with disabilities in Mozambique insist that the laws adopted in the country must begin to be effectively applied. Zeca Chaúque stated that the mere approval of laws does not change people's lives; the real task is to transform legally recognized rights into accessible public policies, institutions, and concrete changes in the lives of people with disabilities.
During the fourth annual conference on disability and human rights in Maputo, organized by Famod under the slogan 'From reform to realization: Turning rights into real change,' he addressed the Mozambican authorities, calling for the fulfillment of promises to protect people with disabilities.
Chaúque emphasized the need to determine how to ensure legislative enforcement, institutional readiness, availability of financial resources, accessibility of services, as well as the creation of effective monitoring and accountability mechanisms.
Participants of the conference, which will last until Thursday, are discussing the harmonization of legislation, access to justice, social protection, data collection, accessibility, inclusive public procurement, and the participation of people with disabilities in the implementation and monitoring of their rights.
The President of Famod called for these discussions to lead to the development of a national agenda for implementation, including priority recommendations, specific institutional commitments, and follow-up control systems. He also demanded that no decisions concerning people with disabilities be made without their participation.
Chaúque appealed to all attending institutions to take clear, specific, and measurable commitments. He also urged international partners to continue supporting national efforts to promote the rights of people with disabilities, adding that inclusion requires political will, resources, coordination, and above all, commitment.
Albachir Macassar, president of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH), which was recently appointed as an Independent Monitoring Mechanism for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, explained that a right only becomes real when a person with a disability gains access to public services, education, healthcare, and employment.
He noted that a right achieves full realization when decisions affecting people with disabilities are no longer made without their direct involvement. Therefore, in his opinion, adopting a law should not be seen as the final point, but rather as the beginning of a more complex phase—the phase of implementation. Implementation implies revising sectoral legislation.
Macassar also challenged state institutions, urging them to turn legislative acts and administrative decisions into reality by providing adequate data, ensuring accessibility, establishing effective accountability mechanisms, and achieving cross-cutting integration of the issue of disability into public policy.
For his part, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Gender and Social Protection, Paulo Beirão, highlighted the government's efforts to implement legislation on people with disabilities. He indicated that the executive branch's strategic focus is on the rapid dissemination and operationalization of already approved legal instruments to materialize directives into effective local responses.
Beirão stated the high responsibility of the government for the need for continuous improvement in legislative harmonization and strengthening the legal coherence of the state, expressing commitment to consolidating the active and effective participation of people with disabilities as 'protagonists and full subjects of rights' in nation-building.
