Human Rights in time of Crisis – Sunday 26th September 2021
“The past year has shown us new needs and new ways of guaranteeing the well-being of deaf people in situations of crisis. Under the circumstance of different crisis, including infectious diseases, climate change, natural disasters, and armed conflict, deaf people all over the world experience language deprivation, socioeconomic disadvantages, and audism. Today, we emphasise the importance of securing and maintaining the human rights of all deaf people during the different, multiple, and overlapping crisis.”
Today is the last day of the International Week of Deaf People in 2021.
Many D/deaf people and D/deaf with disabilities face barriers, difficulty going through the crisis, facing the wall in communication with the Helpline, becoming or suffer mental health and addiction, financial problem, unemployment and many more. What about climate and global changes in the world? What about rape, sexual abuse, family/friends/staff abuse, alcohol addiction, even drug addiction?
We are in the middle of a severe and dangerous crisis that is COVID-19 and Delta variant in the world. There were many waves of anger and frustration over cover masks through social media and asking for help to use transparent/clear masks by other people to wear when meeting any D/deaf people. The worst is a cover mask where many D/deaf people could not read facial expressions and lipread others in businesses, supermarkets, banks, police staff or doctors. Another problem is finding it difficult to breathe when the D/deaf people have other conditions such as respiratory problems and cannot wear masks. In New Zealand, the Government and MOH (Ministry of Health) agreed to have an exemption card if anyone, including D/deaf people and D/deaf with disabilities people, have respiratory problems. Unfortunately, not all businesses and small places were not aware of the exemption card and forced them to wear masks. The MOH and the Government teams have mentioned through live news many times to ensure that all Businesses NZ get the messages through all staff by training them. Jean used other methods, which work well by visiting any businesses and supermarkets along with the note on paper – I am deaf, can not lipread, please use options pull-down mask, gestures or write down. It worked well by teaching other people to think about D/deaf people and D/deaf with disabilities people. Currently, Jean is waiting for three types of masks:
- wording on the black material mask from the Deaf company in the USA
- one transparent mask as above
- the third clear mask from her Disability Organisation via NZ manufacturing company
Recently there was a severe crisis in Haiti, and one of the Deaf Haitian women was rape by the gangs and men – “gang-raped, brutally tortured, had her organs extracted and murdered” in July 2021. The police and the Government ignored the women’s plead on the ongoing horrific human rights violations against Deaf people in Haiti, particularly Deaf women and girls. The problem with this was the cultural perspective and spiritual culture perspective in Haiti. We, D/deaf people, want to end the human rights abuses in Haiti. The World Federation of Deaf submitted the papers and petitions to the United Nations – “The World Federation of the Deaf has called on decision makers to end human rights abuses against deaf people in Haiti, after an online petition shining light on the issue gained thousands of signatures.”
Here are a couple of links if you are interested in reading about Deaf Haitian women and young girls. https://deafvee.org/2021/07/04/systemic-human-rights-violations-against-deaf-women-in-haiti/
Jean has seen and experienced many people burdened with financial problems, drug addiction, gangs, homeless, and mental health conditions similar to many D/deaf people and D/deaf with disabilities through works. In New Zealand, more urgent services and resources are not getting out to the Social Services, MOH (Ministry of Health) and MSD (Ministry of Social Development). Because it was due to finding funding to continue the services, the lack of awareness about the D/deaf community, their mother’s language – sign language, staff training, resources and requires more interpreters around New Zealand.
We are not the only country to have this problem; there are more out there in the UK, the USA and many other countries. We must tackle the ongoing situation to end the crisis as we face more financial difficulties, the fast-changing technologies, the shortage/lack of accessible housing, and the communities. We must not forget about developing countries because they are worst off than us and their Government’s financial deprivation.
There are many more details and pieces of information to share with you while Jean would like to put them down in this blog. The list will go on and on. Please consider that our crisis needs such force as to compel serious attention and usually acceptance, being supported by objective truth or generally accepted authority. Allow us – D/deaf people and D/deaf with disabilities people to live, work, communicate freely equal and end the human rights abuses now.
Here are more links if you wish to read – https://reliefweb.int/report/c-te-divoire/leaving-no-one-behind-c-te-d-ivoire-how-inform-deaf-people-during-pandemic.
and https://www.gfdrr.org/en/publication/disability-inclusion-disaster-risk-management-0.
and https://qz.com/1839479/covid-19-face-masks-exclude-the-deaf-and-hard-of-hearing/
and https://felton.org/social-services/adult/dccs/
