QFSW organises dialogue on defending disability rights in COVID-19 restoration efforts

Doha: Qatar Foundation for Social Work (QFSW) organized a virtual dialogue session on “The power of partnerships in securing the rights of people with disabilities in the context of COVID 19”.

The meeting took place on the margins of the United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development to monitor and review global progress in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The session aimed to discuss sustainable and resilient recovery efforts from COVID-19 fallouts in a way that improves the socio-economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development: building a comprehensive and effective pathway to realizing the 2030 Agenda in the context of work and life Achievement for sustainable development. The session focused on strengthening international cooperation mechanisms to ensure knowledge transfer and best practice development to include the rights of people with disabilities in responding to and recovering from COVID-19.

The United Nations reaffirms its commitment to promote the rights and full and equal participation of children, women and men with disabilities in society, and promise to take joint action and scalability for a comprehensive socio-economic impact in a post-COVID-19 world Continuing disability inclusion The pandemic has disproportionately affected the rights of people with disabilities (PWD). After all, people with disabilities were among the most marginalized groups and were exposed to risks such as isolation, stigma, poverty, lost work, weakness and mental health impairment.

The pandemic has shown that protection, response and recovery efforts cannot be effective unless all groups of society are equally considered and involved and continued involvement in public contingency planning, health response and recovery efforts.

Qatar Foundation for Social Work CEO Ahmad Al Kuwari said the COVID-19 pandemic had multiple implications for collective efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly for people with disabilities, as the Pandemic has led to further disabilities that are undermining accessibility in various countries and notes that the advisory status of the Qatar Foundation for Social Work with the United Nations Economic and Social Council has given it the opportunity to advocate, communicate and promote others to gather knowledge from others.

The current situation reinforces the need for international platforms such as the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development to reassess capabilities and restore efforts to jointly address the challenges posed by the pandemic, Al Kuwari noted. The Executive Director of the Shafallah Center for Persons with Disabilities, Laalei Abualfain, said that there was a collaboration between the Shafallah Center and Harvard University, in line with the recommendations of the Doha Conference on Disability and Development. This was reflected in a comprehensive evaluation of the Shafallah Center with the aim of establishing the first center with a rights-based approach to assisting people with intellectual disabilities in the Middle East. In addition, a unique family-centered early intervention model was developed as a central component of the cooperation project.

“The center has been taking the highest precautionary measures to ensure the continuation of its services during the pandemic, in addition to many remote services for students and their families, as well as giving priority to vaccination for the center staff and students,” she said.

“People with disabilities are at greater risk of contracting COVID 19 due to barriers to access to basic hygiene; Difficulty maintaining physical distancing addiction to touch for information or physical / mobility assistance, ”said Rosangela Bergman Bieler, Unicef ​​Global Chief Disability Section.

The Qatar Foundation for Social Work is an active international partner in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, as it was granted advisory status in 2017 in the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the most important body for the coordination of economic and social activities was between the United Nations and its subsidiary organs. This advisory capacity has enabled the QFSW to participate effectively in the discussion of the problems of the most vulnerable groups based on the human right to development.

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