facilities. Refugees lack access to many social amenities such as education, adequate food, health care and sanitation. The affected states also try to set up camps to look after IDPs. Other vulnerable groups 417. Elderly persons in Nigeria are an invaluable human resource, as they bear invaluable institutional memory. Unfortunately, the majority of the elderly are challenged to maintain adequate standards of living, as there are no social welfare mechanisms in place to cater for their needs. Many elderly persons who have retired from the civil service reported to the CRM that they often fail to obtain the pensions due to them. Widows also often fail to access the pensions accruing to the estates of their late husbands, which affects their and their families’ wellbeing. Access to adequate health care is not guaranteed to the elderly in many instances. 418. The National Human Rights Commission has taken special note of the Osu, social outcasts who are discriminated against and who are a social minority in Nigeria. The Osu are a stigmatised line of people considered socially inferior and taboo to the mainstream Igbo society. This has affected their enjoyment of human rights as a social group. This socially disenfranchised group faces exclusion and marginalisation in the areas of social, political, cultural and economic rights. While a law, referred to as the Osu Caste Law, criminalises the treatment of individuals as outcasts, the practice of shunning the Osu and excluding them from mainstream activities is still pervasive and oppressive to the Osu. iii. Recommendations 419. The APR Panel recommends that: • An equal opportunities commission be created to handle complaints of groups that are socially excluded, marginalised or vulnerable. Equal opportunities should be provided for PWDs through affirmative action measures and enabling laws and policies that ensure inclusiveness and participation in all mainstream programmes and governance frameworks. (Government) • Nigeria ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This law should be domesticated at federal and state level as expeditiously as possible. The law should establish an independent commission responsible for handling disability issues, headed by PWDs and their duly recognised representatives. (Government and legislatures at all levels) • PWDs be included in all development programmes, and their concerns and interests be mainstreamed, as a matter of federal government and state policy. To this end, the rights of PWDs should be enshrined and affirmed in the constitution, in national development plans and through legislative reforms. (Government and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development) 137