Call for tackling issues of the disabled

By Zainab Al Nasseri — MUSCAT: April 9 - A workshop on ‘activation of administrative authorities’ roles towards people with disabilities’ was inaugurated on Sunday at the Child Care Centre in Al Khoudh, under auspices of Shaikh Mohammed bin Said al Kalbani, Minister of Social Development, along with the participation of 120 government officials. Dr Yahiya al Mawali, Under-Secretary, emphasised the need to further discuss the disabled issues and seek solutions to their problems. He also asserted that complementary efforts make success. “The Sultanate signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and therefore totally abides to impose rules taking care of this category of society”, confirming that there is a law being currently studied by the Ministry of Legal Affairs, regulating services provided to the disabled and reserving their rights.     “However, there are rules in many authorities that regulate services of the handicapped but still need to be periodically revised.” “The ministry recently completed with the strategy meant with development of the disabled services in government, private and civil sectors. But, still a real participation from this category is required”, Al Mawali clarified. Hilal bin Mohammed al Abri, Director General of the Disabled at the ministry, in his speech said that activating administrative authorities’ roles is a project which demands an accurate and obvious planning for activities and procedures. “It aims at enhancing the disabled rights as same as their counterparts inside government bodies through fulfilling articles of the Convention and measuring performance indicators for the concerned on an annual basis for evaluation purposes,” he explained. The project outputs are expected to have a comprehensive knowledge on the disabled rights and services they need, enabling admin bodies to professional dealing with this category. This will also provide definite data for the Sultanate’s report on procedures taken to implement the Convention’s items during 2015-2018, and gain entrepreneur experiences to be shared at regional and international levels. Hamood al Shabibi, Assistant Director General of the Disabled Affairs, presented a visual display of the project, causes, aims, components related agreements and expected results.