DISABILITY: Regional consultation on children and UN disability Convention underway in Yemen

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Summary: A Middle East and North Africa regional consultation on children and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be held from 29 - 31st October in Sana'a, Yemen.

Read CRIN interviews with Yemeni children participating in the consultation, Muna and Waheeb

[SANA’A, 29 October 2007] – A consultation on child rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Middle East and North Africa opened in Sana’a, Yemen, this morning.

The three-day meeting, which is jointly organised by Save the Children UK and Save the Children Sweden, the Arab Human Rights Foundation and the Yemeni Disability Fund for Care and Rehabilitation, is one of six regional consultations which will discuss how the rights of children with disabilities can be strengthened by the new Convention. The consultations will contribute to an Implementation Handbook which will be published by Save the Children in December 2008.

Participants in the meeting include more than seventy children and adults with and without disabilities from Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Sudan, Lebanon and Egypt from government ministries, NGOs and children themselves.

In an opening speech, Samia, one of over 20 Yemeni children participating in the event, told of the particular isolation of girls with disabilities, “who are seen as having no worth in the community, they are outcasts,” she said, "and they are not listened to." She hoped this meeting would be an opportunity for all children to express their dreams and expectations and to talk about some of the rights violations they have experienced in their communities.

In a welcome note, Sanna Johnson, Regional Representative for Save the Children Sweden, said “we now know that more than 10 per cent of the world’s children live with disabilities. Up to 200 million children are denied their rights: the right to be included in society, included in schools, to express themselves, and to be part of a society in which they will be the future.”

Save the Children has a long history of involvement in the region, she said, but the focus of their work has shifted from service provision to promoting and safeguarding children’s rights. Save have worked on disability issues in Yemen since 1992 with the Ministry of Social Affairs, which they supported to create a community based rehabilitation department. They have since worked with the Ministry of Education to establish an inclusive education department.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the platform for all Save the Children’s work. Non-discrimination is one of the four principles of the CRC, and will be central to this meeting.

Speaking about the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, she pointed out that Yemen was one of the first eight countries to sign the Convention. The government also hosted an Arab parliamentary meeting on the Convention, and now, she said, she looked forward to seeing Yemen’s national strategy for persons with disabilities put into action.

Rajaa Abdulla Ahmed Al-Masabi, Chairperson of the Arab Human Rights Foundation, took the floor, recalling the struggle that those involved in the disability rights movement had had in getting governments to say yes to the Convention. Now the struggle is to get them to make these rights a reality. "Now", she said, "the real work begins.” She stressed, in closing, that children's participation in this meeting was special as it is the first consultation in which they will be heard.  

A message was then read out on behalf of Sheika Hissa Al-Thani, UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, who was unable to attend.

Stressing the need to create a culture of human rights, she said: While over 100 countries have signed the Convention, and laws and legislation are important, they are not enough to make these rights a reality.

“It is through educating children and raising their awareness about rights, about common humanity and acceptance, that we actually break the barriers between children in the classroom, in the playground…It is these values that will help to break the barrier between people with and people without disabilities and help in making us see one another as human beings with equal rights."

Hissa Al-Thani’s main recommendation to disability advocates was to urge and lobby governments for the Convention’s implementation on the ground. Addressing children, with and without disabilities, she asked them to “embrace the culture of human rights and respect for all and use these to change the world for the better.”
Read the full speech.

Closing the session, Yemen’s Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, H.E., Dr. Amat Al-Razzaq Ali Hummad, welcomed the event and spoke of Yemen’s support for children with disabilities. Yemen has signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, she said, and is now embarking on the legal procedures to ratify the Convention in the parliament.

Two parallel consultations will be held over the next three days – for adults and for children. Central to the consultation will be the presentation of children's recommendations to the adults about what should be done to make their rights a reality. Updates on the sessions will be available here.

Other news from day 1

Country: 
Yemen
Issues: 
Children with disabilities

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