“The Bones of the Trade” in the Time of Decartelization of Risk Communication: Climate Change and People with Disabilities

Delso Khossa"

The majority of citizens with disabilities in the Mozambican context find themselves struggling to meet their basic needs. Citizens with physical disabilities face the “hardships of the trade” to ensure their survival, and despite the existence of several legal mechanisms that protect them, there is still a long way to go in terms of implementing and monitoring human rights. With the current climate change, this group is more vulnerable to human rights violations such as food security, precarious housing structures, sanitation, education, health, freedom of expression, violence, etc. Life for this group still takes us back to the time when paper was produced, when to complete the chemical equation for marrow powder it was necessary to extract the substance from inside the bones so that the sheets of paper could be white.

After all, what is a person with a disability? What types of disability? Disability is a term related to the social restrictions imposed on citizens with a variety of bodily abilities. Social restrictions are concepts of social and symbolic constructions that society will root throughout life. Body variety can be linked to environmental, political, social and cultural issues and currently technological issues. Political issues (wars), environmental issues (sanitation, climate change and food insecurity) are those that contribute to the occurrence of disability. The types of disability are classified as physical, mental, sensory (vision and hearing) and intellectual. Therefore, Dos Santos (2008) states that disability needs to be seen as (i) a manifestation of human diversity with regard to acceptance and sensitivity to body variety; (ii) a bodily restriction that can be resolved by medicine and genetics to improve people's well-being; social and economic disadvantage for the practice of injustice and inequality, impacting the self-esteem of PwD.

In contextual terms, 15% of the world's population has a disability, of which 80% live in poor and developed countries. The 15% correspond to more than 1 billion people who tend to increase with age, with the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental disorders (World Report on Disability (WDR) (2010). Data from the National Institute of Statistics in 2007 show that there were 475,011 citizens with disabilities in the country, which in 2017 increased to 727,620. The most frequent types of disability are: 30% with amputated or atrophied leg; 17% deaf or mute; 14% amputated or atrophied arm; 14% blind; 12% paralysis; 13% mental problems. Functional difficulty in locomotion is the most prevalent, corresponding to 43%.

With the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of 1966 being guiding instruments of Human Rights, the issue of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) was still an “outline”. At the beginning of the millennium, in 2006, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was approved. This gap expands to the point where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made official in 1988 and established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), does not provide for the rights of PwD. Although internally, the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique already guided against discrimination against PwD, expanding public policies such as the National Plan for Disability (PNAD I - 2006-2010 and PNAD II, 2012-2019) that allowed participation, inclusion and creation of social conditions in public infrastructure, for example PNAD II aims to promote full participation, equality and empowerment of people with disabilities and ensure the principle of equal rights and opportunities for this social group. The Strategy for Inclusive Education and Development of Children with Disabilities 2020-2029.

Therefore, in 1999, through Resolution No. 20/99 of June 23, the Policy on Persons with Disabilities was approved, which assigned the Ministry of Education the responsibility of ensuring access and integration of children and young people with disabilities and/or SEN through innovative policies around employment in the public sector and participation. In 2008, Decree No. 53/2008 of December 30 was approved, the Regulation for the Construction and Maintenance of Technical Devices for Accessibility, Circulation and Use of Service Systems and Public Places for Persons with Physical Disabilities or Limited Mobility. In the area of ​​education, there have been significant advances in legal terms and implementation of conditions for People with Special Needs. Eduardo Mondlane University leads in terms of inclusion of course training and library conditions. In 2024, Law No. 10/2024 on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was approved.

Therefore, despite advances in the education sector and public and some private infrastructures, challenges still remain in the sanitation, housing, employment, technology and environmental justice sectors. The principle of equality is still a white paper, as the vulnerability of this human segment is prone to inequality in the non-compliance with laws. The market prioritizes gender issues and has more assistance and support projects, but there is still a road to be traveled for PwD. In other sectors of academia and even the production of data by the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD) is scarce.

The decartelization of PwD in communities, organizations and public policies has a significant impact on the economy and social values. There is a need to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of PwD in the context of frequent climate change where accessibility of information and space for advocacy for their rights is the place to give voice. In the world of sports, this group has its space where they manifest and demonstrate abilities from abnormal to normal, which means that disability can be social and symbolic constructions of society. The lack of access to technological means and medical resources increases the vulnerability of PwD. In academic-scientific and business circles, there is a need to instigate debate and corporate social responsibility actions without just waiting for the date of celebration. Public policies need to respond not only to rights, but also prevent actions that condition the occurrence of disability. Undoubtedly, the cyclical occurrence of climate change poses challenges to the effectiveness, efficiency and implementation of public policies. Risk communication actions cannot be discarded, as they are an essential tool not only for influencing behavior change, but also for rationalizing scarce resources.

It is important to highlight that, from Di Giulio's perspective (2006), risk communication in the act of dialogue opens space for the exchange of opinions between citizens and institutions. During the act of dialogue, those involved interact about the nature of the risk, opinions, knowledge and concerns in order to instigate cognitive perception in risk prevention. This will feed the level of perception, acceptance, adaptation and mitigation of risk. Risk communication for PwD needs to be aligned with the social context and use human language that is committed and interactive with the cause. Mapping PwD in areas at risk of climate change is a strategy to prevent the increased risk of decartelization. The content or messages for both climate change and PwD need to be adopted by all means, simple and with symbolic identity so that families can gain awareness and assist PwD. Risk communication with its attributes (social values, symbolic representations, emotions, environment and context) fuels behaviour change if obstacles such as demographic, educational, economic and scientific literacy deficits and resistance to change are overcome.

2025/12/3