NOUSPR–UBUMUNTU – #WhatWENeed Campaign Submission
Persons with psychosocial disabilities in Rwanda continue to face deep gaps in recognition, rights protection, and access to all services. Stigma, poverty, and limited social protection place persons with psychosocial disabilities at a heightened risk of exclusion, while families and caregivers, frequently marginalized and living in poverty themselves, receive little or no support from the State. Existing laws and policies often fail to recognize persons with psychosocial disabilities as rights holders beyond a medical framework. This lack of rights-based legal protection contributes to gaps in safety, access to services, and safeguards against violence, abuse, and discrimination, and reinforces their exclusion from development planning and decision-making.
Key Issue to Highlight:
Rwanda needs comprehensive legal and policy frameworks that recognize and protect the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities across sectors, such as social protection, and mechanisms to prevent violence, abuse, and exclusion.
Call for Action
We call on government institutions, partners, and disability networks to:
- Develop and adopt rights-based legal and policy frameworks that recognize persons with psychosocial disabilities as rights holders and prevent violence, discrimination, and abuse.
- Ensure social protection programs explicitly include persons with psychosocial disabilities and with appropriate supports that also recognize the needs of families and caregivers, where relevant.
- Support community awareness and advocacy work led by grassroots groups like NOUSPR–UBUMUNTU, which currently lack funding and resources but have strong community engagement and leadership with lived experience.
