Prince Mired calls for highlighting disability as ‘development issue’ in post-2015 agenda

AMMAN — Jordan joined 147 countries taking part in the UN Conference of States Parties’ Seventh Session at UN Headquarters in New York last week. 

Conference delegates reviewed progress, assessed their countries’ challenges and deliberated the way forward in terms of implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, according to a statement released on Saturday by the Higher Council for Affairs of Persons with Disabilities (HCD).

HH Prince Mired, head of the Jordanian delegation, and HCD president, underscored the need to continue drawing up an “inclusive post-2015 development agenda”, with disability highlighted as a “development issue”. 

The prince also reflected on Jordan’s national consultations on the post-2015 development agenda, led by the UN since 2012.

Noting that although they included the issue of “stereotypes… and equal access to social services by working to overcome inequalities and combat poverty and invisible barriers”, a more “visible” approach to including disability “as a stand-alone development issue, priority and tool” is needed.

Using HCD’s experience as an example of how this can be achieved, Prince Mired said it can only be done “when the faces and voices of persons with disabilities are explicitly seen and articulately heard”.

Posing the question of how to realise this via a global development framework, the prince proposed a new set of objectives for a disability-focused goal. These include ensuring that all development policies are inclusive of the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as ensuring access to quality education and healthcare services, such as early detection and intervention services.

Other objectives, he noted, are improving disability data collection, analysis and monitoring, in addition to strengthening national efforts to adequately address the rights and needs of persons with disabilities, the statement said.

To serve their purpose and be applicable, these objectives “must be tied to a set of achievable targets and indicators”, Prince Mired emphasised.

The four-day event included round-table discussions on the CRPD vis-à-vis the post-2015 agenda, and the role of monitoring and national implementation of the convention. 

The Kingdom’s delegation included HCD Secretary General Amal Nahhas, director of the UN Convention and the National Strategy Department Lara Yasin, and director of the Communication and International Relations Department Alia Zureikat, according to the statement. 

In addition to the conference sessions, the delegates also participated in several side events relating to equality, inclusive education, accessibility and inclusive societies. 

A civil society forum preceded the conference, with Prince Mired, who is also the special envoy of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, co-chairing a session where panellists called for the development of standards for protecting elderly persons, the statement said.

The eighth session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD is scheduled for June 2015.