By Marie Dhumieres
BEIRUT: Activists are optimistic that steps toward the inclusion
of the disabled will be taken after debates with government ministers on the
occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The event held Saturday in Beirut was organized by a coalition
of organizations defending the rights of people suffering from disabilities,
and attended by Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour, Education Minister
Hasan Diab, Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi and Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas.
“The event aimed at promoting disabled people’s right to
inclusion” and calling for Lebanon’s ratification of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, explained Sylvanna
Lakkis, the head of the Lebanese Union for Physically Disabled People, one of
the organizers of the event.
“For the first time, we had serious discussions about problems
and how to proceed to find solutions and go toward inclusion,” Lakkis told The
Daily Star, praising ministers for unanimously acknowledging that the current
situation was unsatisfying.
“We’re still very far from being able to live our life in
dignity and independence,” she said, adding that 83 percent of the disabled in
the country were unemployed, and that some 50 percent of the disabled still
haven’t gone to school because of the lack of accessible infrastructure.
“It’s time for serious work, for different ministries to carry
out their duties ... Until now we still suffer from everything we do or try to
do,” she said, arguing that the state had the responsibility of achieving
change and finally implementing the 2000 Disability Rights Law.
Abu Faour, who described the disability issue as a “human rights
issue,” called for the law to be implemented and the government to “carry out
its duty,” the National News Agency reported.
Addressing the audience, he said, “any state that doesn’t see
you is a state that doesn’t have a heart, and any state that cannot benefit
from your abilities is a state without a mind.
“What’s required of me is to change our outdated welfare system
and I hope that soon, we will be able [to] announce that this has been
achieved.”
He said his ministry was planning with an affiliated center to
deal with violations of the rights of the disabled, and hoped progress on the
U.N. convention’s ratification would take place despite current paralysis due
to “political disputes.”
Qortbawi agreed, saying the 2000 law “is not being implemented
as it should be, and we officials are not doing what we should.
“It’s not important that laws are approved. What’s important is
to implement them,” he added.
For his part, Education Minister Diab said more than 3,500
pre-university students suffered from learning difficulties, and that his
ministry’s goal was to “improve quality of basic education, especially for the
weakest and most marginalized.”
He said his ministry will launch a support program for those
suffering from learning disabilities in 100 public schools in January, as well
as a program to develop the ability of teachers and administration to deal with
disabled students, in a bid to “spread the culture of rights and equality.”
He also said the ministry would train experts to assess learning
disabilities, and work on improving school infrastructure in order to enhance
accessibility, reminding the audience that 100 schools had been equipped to
receive disabled students in the past decade.
Lakkis praised the “wonderful” Abu Faour, “who has already taken
many practical steps” to ensure the rights of the disabled, and she described
Diab as “very open” because he acknowledged the need for improvement and
“promised to work with NGOs toward inclusion.”
She said
organizers were “not happy with the current situation but pleased with [the
ministers’] reaction. They promised to collaborate with us and take practical
steps,” she said. “We will not live in the dark.”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-05/156024-debate-brightens-international-day-for-the-disabled.ashx#axzz1ffjZuLhc
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