CAIRO: Egypt's Minister of Social Solidarity Ali Moselhi stressed that an agreement signed by the ministry with the United Nations to support the rights of the disabled provides support worth one million dollars, “where the agreement seeks to strengthen the capacity of lawmakers to include the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Disabled in the framework of Egyptian law,” he said. It will also aim to develop a national action plan for its implementation and ratification. The minister pointed to a pilot project aimed at persons with special needs at the civil society level, through selected NGOs, “to raise awareness of disability rights and to provide all the necessary programs to develop communication skills and behavior modification for all categories of disability.” Moselhi, in a press statement on Sunday, added that the agreement is the “fruit of cooperation” between the Ministry and international organizations to improve the level of services provided in social rehabilitation and care for people with special needs. “Egypt has taken the initiative to sign the International Convention on the Rights of the Disabled among 144 countries, including 16 Arab countries,” he said. For her part, Aisha Abdul-Rahman, Chairman of the Central Social Welfare division at the Ministry, said that the international convention adopted by the United Nations and signed by Egypt in 2007, “protects all the rights of persons with disabilities whether political, civil, economic, cultural and social, with the need for equality and non-discrimination and the right to life, liberty and security and the right to mental and physical safety, as well as the right to rehabilitation with respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities.” Abdul-Rahman explained that the ministry had activated the terms of the agreement since it was signed, through its institutions at the “level of the republic,” as well as activating the role of civil society organizations, associations and NGOs working in the care of people with disabilities. BM
