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[SANA’A, 31 October 2007] - The Middle East and North Africa regional consultation on children and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) closed today in Sana’a Yemen. The aim of the meeting, which was jointly organised by Save the Children, the Arab Human Rights Foundation and the Yemeni Disability Fund for Care and Rehabilitation to discuss the best way to use the new Convention to promote and strengthen the rights of children with disabilities. The consultation brought together more than seventy children and adults with and without disabilities from the Middle East and North Africa Representatives and experts from national and international organisations also attended the meeting. Children with disabilities participating at the meeting discussed ways in which their rights had been violated and the types of discrimination they faced. They presented recommendations on how these rights could best be preserved and promoted. Among the main children’s main statements were: Children with disabilities have the same rights as other children The children added that governments are obligated to work on improving the accessibility of the physical environment, adapting the existing infrastructure and applying the accessibility code in all newly constructed buildings and facilities. Developing legislation to promote inclusive education for all children is essential. The media must present children with disabilities as empowered and capable, not as weak and in need of charity. Finally, children expressed the need for adults to listen to their views and opinions and to include them in decision making processes. Children’s recommendations will contribute to the development of a CRPD implementation advocacy handbook that will promote the rights of children with disabilities worldwide and will be published by Save the Children in 2008. Save the Children calls on governments in the region and the world to sign and ratify the CRPD. We also urge States to consult with children with disabilities at all levels to develop national legislation, policies, strategies, and plan of actions concerning them. Finally, we remind States of their obligations to provide the necessary support for parent to fulfil the rights of their children with disabilities. The meeting was sponsored by H.E. Mr. Abdel Aziz Abdel Ghani, Chair of the Yemeni Al-Shura Council and H.E. Dr. Amat Alrazzaq Ali Hummad, Yemeni Minister of Social Affairs and Labour. Background The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is the first human rights treaty of the 21st Century which marks a paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It reaffirms that human rights extend to all people, irrespective of disability or age. The significance of the treaty, therefore, is not in establishing new human rights standards for people with disabilities; rather, it is to ensure their realisation. The treaty introduces new obligations to overcome cultural, legal, economic and physical barriers and introduces measures which ensure that people with disabilities are acknowledged as subjects of rights, entitled to respect on an equal footing with all other people. The UNCRPD was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2006 and opened for signature on 30 March 2007. At present 118 countries have signed, including Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco. This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on such short time span. 10 per cent of all children in the world are with disabilities (150-200 million out of two billion children). Children with disabilities experience widespread violations of their rights, many of which are common to those faced by adults – poverty, social exclusion, lack of accessible environments, violence. However, they also face additional abuses – abandonment as babies, institutionalisation, exclusion from education, lack of birth registration, lack of respect for their evolving capacities, inappropriate child protection systems and so forth. And despite obligations to address the rights of children with disabilities under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, too little progress has been made to date. For more information on the Middle East and North Africa regional consultation, contact: Waleed Mohammed Elbashir Ibrahim Faltas Aisha Saeed Sabah Sabri For daily CRIN updates on the consultation, go here. Information is available in Arabic here.
Children with disabilities are more vulnerable to abuse, violence and discrimination against their rights than their peers without disabilities.
Societies and parents need support and information to raise awareness about the potential of children with disabilities.
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