LET US FIGHT FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIES AND FIGHT HATE CRIME

 It is no hidden fact that people with disabilities are easy target. .. Being targets of their issues remain to be misunderstood and such results in physical and social abuse. Imagine the news we always read on people committing criminal offence on people living with disabilities.

I grew up in a society which has all in the past have negative views developed on people living with disabilities and it feels gory to hear the stereotypes people clinging on with relation to people living with disabilities that they are portrayed as dependent , uneducable , unemployable and unproductive. It is very much bad to hear some of the grant motivators pushing the agenda that that people living with disabilities are always in need of institutionalized care, sheltered employment and welfare.

the above mentality which is subjected to categorizing the health of a person leads to discrimination and disadvantage and can lead to the motive of hate crime. we have been seeing news in the Kingdom of Eswatini and beyond of perpetrators who target people living with disabilities or people perceived to have disability because they are considered to be vulnerable due to the symptoms of their impairment or health condition. This perception of all people with disabilities as vulnerable ultimately minimizes or disregard the social factors associated with their participation and inclusion within society.

This prejudice manifests itself either in the expression of hostility towards people with disabilities in a crime where in all facts of the matter it would remain that selectively targeting people with disabilities because they are considered 'easy targets' is an expression of bias and is therefore considered a hate crime.

the indicating factors of hate crime on people with disabilities which can identify a bias against people with disabilities incidents can include one of the following elements:

- Physical attacks

-Sustained attacks

- False accusations on a person living with disability or informing others or spoiling fun on others

- Cruelty, humilation , degrading treatment, often related to the nature of the person's disability

- Theft by people close to the person living with disability

It is known that hate crimes against people with disabilities are under-reported and in our society there a host of challenges to reporting this type of hate incident, notably the victims potential isolation or proximity to the perpetrator, the fear that their claim will not be taken seriously and the risk that law enforcement officers will not recognize the severity of this type of hate crime. Our Government has a central role to play in ensuring this access


 

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