People with hearing disabilities will not be detained for the coming six months following a High Court ruling in Zimbabwe.
The act allowed the detention of people with hearing disabilities who need a sign language interpreter for any communication.
Two Organizations, the Legal Resources Foundation and the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust argued that Section 193 of the law does not provide reasonable accommodation for accused people with hearing disabilities.
People with hearing disabilities account for most people living with disabilities and are about 15 percent of the total Zimbabwe population.
The Constitution recognises sign language as an official language, but the people with hearing disabilities have lamented that it is never used, which leaves them discriminated, islolated and disempowered. Activists have even called for sign language to be taught in schools so that deaf people have same access as everyone else.
“Section 193 of CPEA violates the rights of accused persons who are deaf and mute as enshrined in the Constitution. Accordingly, Section 193 (detention of persons who are deaf or mute or both) of the CPEA Chapter 9:07) be and is hereby declared unconstitutional and is suspended for six months to allow the 1st respondent to remove the unconstitutionality by introducing a clause which provides for sign language interpreters,” read the ruling.
“In the absence of a sign language interpreter, accused persons who are deaf will not be informed of the charge promptly and will also be denied the right to have proceedings conducted in the language they understand.” The executive director of the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust Ms Barbra Nyangaira said the ruling was a milestone for the deaf who had been challenging the piece of legislation since 2015.
“Deaf people did not benefit anything from the publicly disseminated information on the deadly Covid-19 because there was no sign language interpretation” said Douglas Mapeta.
