The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and South Africans with Albinism: A Commentary

Abstract

The year 2021 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The enactment of the instrument has been lauded as ground-breaking, as it contains provisions that seek to safeguard the world’s largest minority group, persons with disabilities (PwDs). The instrument is perceived as having triggered normative and institutional safeguards at the national, regional, and international levels with the aim of empowering this population. Despite this progress, it is apparent that a sub-group, namely persons with albinism (PwAs), are yet to reap the befits of the instrument. Among the mythologies of South African communities is the superstition that the body parts of these individuals possess magical powers which could be a source of fortune, lead to a bumper harvest, or cure complicated illnesses. Though these perceptions are erroneous, they lead some people to rape PwAs or to harvest their organs for rituals. As the international community celebrates the birth of the CRPD, this article argues that it is high time the state formulated a comprehensive intervention to avert further attacks on this vulnerable population.