Doha: Promoting and safeguarding the rights of persons with disabilities come at the forefront of the priorities of Qatar which has spared no effort to ensure the incorporation of the issues of persons with disabilities into its entire policies and programmes, underlined Laalei Abu Alfain, Executive Director of Shafallah Centre for Persons with Disability.
This is one of the centres operating under the umbrella of Qatar Social Work Foundation, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Social Development and Family.
Addressing the graduation ceremony of the six batch of the Centre’s affiliates that included 45 graduates, Abu Alfain underlined that supporting and empowering persons with disabilities are one of the core pillars of Qatar national vision 2030, in recognition of the importance of human rights in general, and rights of persons with disabilities in particular.
She noted the groundbreaking role the Centre has been undertaking over the past years to provide the professional services for the persons with disabilities, specially that, during the past 20 years, the centre sought to afford professional, educational, rehabilitation, treatment and psychological services that evidently compete the services offered in the pioneering international centres operating in this field.
Abu Alfain noted that Qatar has achieved a remarkable progress in the area of espousing the rights of persons with disabilities and their integration as an exigent priority, and this is well demonstrated when comparing the Qatar National Development Strategy during 2011-16, including its strategy for the period 2018-22. Most strikingly, the second strategy advocates for the societal integration of persons with disabilities, she added, stating that such new strategic orientation reflects the belief of the planners, policy and decision-making authorities in the state of Qatar in the rights of persons with disabilities, including the paradigm evolution in the national policy in alignment with UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Abu Alfain pointed out that Qatar has stipulated in its national constitution and laws, including Qatar national vision 2030 to safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities and provide the needs and the appropriate support to them and their families alike since they are primarily the methods of achieving equality and justice among the individuals of Qatari community and not merely the services offered to them.
