Publications

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities affirms that all human rights—civil, political, social, economic—extend to persons with disabilities in exactly the same way as to persons without disabilities. It calls for disability to be understood not just as a medical condition, but also as an effect of barriers in the physical and social environment. Since 2006, all ESCWA member States have signed the Convention, and there is a growing commitment in the region to ensure that its provisions are fulfilled.

The great interest shown in the 2014 ESCWA report Disability in the Arab Region: An Overview, which was a first attempt to collect and analyze data relating to disability in the Arab countries, was a testament to the growing dynamism of the disability movement in this part of the world.