Imad Murad - Doha
How do we know the concept of disability? What are the ways to integrate into society? Several questions The Doha International Conference on Disability and Development tried to answer them during the sessions of the first day of the conference, which was held under the title "so that no one is left behind" at the Qatar National Convention Center.
The conference, which witnessed the participation of Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the Qatar Foundation for Social Action, and a large number of international and local dignitaries, the number of participants in it reached more than 1500 people from decision makers, academics and specialized experts from Qatar and the world.
The conference aims, according to its organizers, to be the Doha Declaration to be issued at the conclusion of the conference a road map to guide governments to promote the rights of their children with disabilities, as well as outline a practical approach linking the strategies of the sustainable development goals and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities To convince governments that change by bringing together the two legal and development aspects is not a wishful thinking, but rather a feasible and achievable matter.
| Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohamed calls for the elimination of the stigma attached to disability (Al-Jazeera Net) |
In her speech to the opening session of the conference, Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser called for redefining disability and addressing discrimination between one person and another on the basis of disability in its misconception, noting that disability is a stereotype perpetuated by the prevailing mentality and social culture that define the definition of people with disabilities and frame their model with false perceptions.
She expressed the belief that distinguishing some persons with a characteristic derived from the term disability itself is a description that is involved in some form of racial discrimination, pointing out that the exception that people with disabilities receive is an exception that harms them more than it benefits them, as is the case with the privilege stemming from compassion.
She emphasized the necessity of investing in persons with disabilities to enable them to perform their developmental role in society by devising mechanisms capable of stopping waste resulting from the lack of investment in people with disabilities and not being able to perform their developmental role, through professional employment of these large numbers of marginalized people claiming disability, no Especially that they have talents worthy of nurturing their talents.
| The conference seeks to make a positive difference and a sustainable impact on the lives of approximately one and a half billion people with disabilities (Al Jazeera Net) |
Eliminate stigma
The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohamed, agreed with the speech of Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, stressing the need to eliminate the stigma attached to persons with disabilities, especially in light of the stigma attached to the misunderstanding of their rights and the value of the contributions they make to their societies.
She called for the necessity of correcting the misconceptions of persons with disabilities and their role in society by urging governments to make critical decisions in this framework and not to continue the policy of marginalizing nearly a billion and a half billion people around the world.
It called on countries of the world to make more efforts to improve data on persons with disabilities to be used in the national plans to integrate persons with disabilities socially, stressing that the issue of integrating persons with disabilities should be among the priorities of national budgets to enable access to persons with disabilities as a prerequisite Advance to integrate them socially.
| A part of attending the Doha International Conference on Disability and Development (Al Jazeera Net) |
Merging people
Qatar's role in the field of inclusion of persons with disabilities was the focus of the speech of the CEO of the Qatar Foundation for Social Work, Amal Al Mannai, stressing that her country is one of the countries that cares most about the rights of persons with disabilities, as it was one of the first supporters of the Convention on Persons with Disabilities, which it signed in 2008.
Al-Mannai added that the conference seeks to make a positive difference and a sustainable impact on the lives of approximately one and a half billion people with disabilities, i.e. an estimated 15% of the world's population, by bringing about a fundamental change in development plans, legislation and laws to their advantage.
The first day of the conference, which started on Saturday, witnessed a plenary session, two main sessions and four parallel sessions. The sessions dealt with the necessity of states ’political commitment to the rights of persons with disabilities by pushing global leaders to launch high-level pledges committing them to support their rights.
The sessions also discussed a mechanism for opening paths of action that can link the United Nations Convention on Persons with Disabilities and the United Nations' goals for sustainable development and maximize the use of international agreements.