Description
Natural disasters, wars and other forms of human conflict led to high rates of permanent disability. Impairment, even in ordinary times, would hinder their full and effective participation in society and access to health. As of today, persons with disabilities have been left behind in every dimension of universal health coverage. Persons with disabilities die earlier, have poorer health and functioning, and are more affected by health emergencies than persons without disabilities. Persons with disabilities are often overlooked during humanitarian crises and their aftermath. Drawing on fieldwork from Colombia, this presentation will examine how the Convention on The Rights of Persons with Disabilities is (or should) be changing the health system to accommodate persons with disabilities, particularly ex-combatants in situations of prolonged conflict and displacement.
Methodology:
This presentation will report on an exploratory case study, which is composed of various waves of data collection across Colombia from 2018 to today. The data collection has semi-structured interviews, focus groups and field observations, including disabled people’s organisations, government agencies, international organisations and academic groups.
Results and Discussions:
Findings suggest that the transition to civilian life for ex-combatants is made more difficult by inadequate procedures, lack of support and complex administrative data vacuums. Social determinants, historical prejudice against persons with disabilities, high levels of unemployment and political polarisation in a post-conflict context combine to trigger poverty traps. Our results suggest substantive shortcomings in accessibility, acceptability and availability of basic health care for those with disabilities. The findings indicate pitfalls in the early implementation of the Colombian peace process, which did not consider structural issues that affected the transition to civilian life for ex-combatants with disabilities. Furthermore, key enablers for social inclusion, such as peer-to-peer support, have been identified by respondents.
Conclusions:
We conclude that a better understanding of the disabling impact of conflict and the experiences of impairment and disability could contribute to wider health systems strengthening, although this remains a significant challenge. This paper highlights that more needs to be done to enhance the voices of ex-combatants with disabilities and to understand the profound meaning of acquiring impairments through participation in conflict, as well as how post-conflict responses could enable these individuals to gain the skills they need to successfully reintegrate into their communities.
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