Editor — For so many, citizenship has relatively formal significance, for example, ability to hold a passport and vote, but for others it is more substantive.
It is about the capacity to participate fully in all the institutions of society-not just those that fit the conventional definitions of the political, but also the social and cultural. Citizenship is not only an issue of individual status; it is a practice that locates individuals in the larger community.
However, people with disabilities have for so long a time suffered from a system of deep structural economic, social, political, legal and cultural inequality in which they have and continue to experience unequal citizenship.
The substantive approach to citizenship raises questions of access and participation, exclusion and inclusion, rights and obligations, legitimate governance and democracy, liberty and equality, public and private, marginalisation and belonging, social recognition and redistribution of resources, structure and agency, identity and personhood and self and other. Because many people with disabilities are denied formal and or substantive citizenship, they are assigned to a minority citizenship. All we need from the Douglas Mwonzora and Paul Mangwana-led process is a new way to conceptualise the nature of disability, a new understanding of citizenship that encompasses the disabled, new policies to respond to the needs of the disabled and a new legal vision to the entitlements of the disabled.
Disability is not fundamentally a question of medicine or health, nor is it an issue of sensitivity and compassion; rather it is a question of politics of power. As a result the protection of persons with disabilities should be made mandatory by legislation.
Special attention should be given to education, employment and creating a non-discriminating environment.
Provisions that deal with persons with disabilities within the ambit of law-protection against abuse, social security, custody of children, provision of basic needs such as shelter within the family and marital home are issues that need to be adequately addressed under the new constitution.
In conclusion the constitution should promote the inclusion for persons with disabilities and a barrier-free environment that encourage persons with disabilities to fully participate as members of society. Broadly, this would mean removing obstacles and providing access to all.
Clemence Nhliziyo, programme officer-advocacy and campaigns (Young voices) and Leonard Cheshire, Zimbabwe Trust
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