Exploring the Right to Work for Persons with Disabilities in Zimbabwe as an Enabler to Inclusive Participation in Economic Development

Abstract

 Article 27 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides for the right to work for persons with disabilities (PWDs). Zimbabwe, as a party to the CRPD, is obliged to put in place progressive positive measures for the protection, promotion and enjoyment of the right to work by PWDs. In the light of the international obligations arising from the CRPD, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the African Disability Protocol, this article examines the existing legal framework on the right to work for PWDs in Zimbabwe, including the other types of disabilities entitled to benefit from PWDs’ substantive right to work. Additionally this article critically analyses the scope and extent of the protections (if any) attaching to the right to work for PWDs in Zimbabwe. Therefore the article adopts a desktop approach whereby existing statutes and texts are examined, focussing on their utility towards the respect, protection, promotion and realisation of the right to work for PWDs in Zimbabwe. In conclusion the article offers recommendations on ways the right to work can be fully realised by PWDs in Zimbabwe as a catalyst for the inclusive participation of PWDs in the economic development of Zimbabwe, both in the public and private sectors, on an equal basis with their peers without disabilities.