Today’s society of Afghanistan is grappling with a number of problems; whenever we are looking 0at the different dimensions of the people’s life in the society, we see a number of problems on the way of the people where these problems are in their economics, politics, social, cultural and finally in all levels.
But there are a number of problems that different layers of the society are facing and always their voices were communicated to people but less attention is given to them.
Today the vulnerable layers of the society include the disabled people, children and women who are facing with the problems since long time.
Since some years different organizations with the help of civil society have struggled for the betterment of the living conditions of these layers and they had some activities which are mostly done by the civil society institutions and in the area of lawsuit and awareness.
The civil society institutions performed many remarkable activities to solve the problems of disabled persons in the society and most of these activities are in the form of seminars, workshops, awareness through media and other examples.
The lawsuit done for the disabled persons in the recent years has shown the importance of the disability issue to the international community. This is the reason that the issue of disability in Afghanistan is discussed in many conferences and workshops around the world and beside this the representatives of the disabled persons are participating in these conferences and workshops.
Regarding this issue meetings were conducted in India and Geneva Switzerland where participants were participated from the civil society; especially from the disabled persons, among them Mr. Muhammad Saddiq Mohebi the coordinator of re-empowering of disabled person also participated.
For further clarification about the details of these two meetings I (Masood Ansar) am going to have an interview with him and will be presented to you dear fans of the program.
Question: At the beginning we would like to have short information about your official trips?
Answer: Thank you; I would like to respond to your question that our first meeting was hold from 26th to 28th of November in the Agra City of India where the theme of the meeting was about the re-empowering of the disabled persons around the world and in this meeting round about twelve hundred people were participate and it was the first big meeting regarding the re-empowering of the disabled persons.
In this meeting interesting issues regarding the disability were discussed, especially about the third world countries; then I participated in the twelfth round meeting of stop using the cluster weapons and field mines, this meeting was conducted in the Geneva Switzerland from third to seventh of December.
In this meeting most of the issues which were discussed were about the mine clearance and helping the victims of mines and points were discussed how to eliminated the phenomenon of mine and prevent the negative effects of it on the human societies.
Question: Mr. Mohebi in these two meetings from which address you have participate?
Answer: In the first meeting which was for the re-empowering of the disabled persons I represented the re-empowering institution where I had the responsibility of this institution and from Afghanistan we were a total of 25 persons participated in this meeting and in the second meeting which was conducted in the Geneva Switzerland I participated as one of the victims of the war and in this meeting we had a very good coordination with the civil society institutions and the governmental organizations.
Question: Dear doctor; how was the view of the world’s people regarding the disabled persons of Afghanistan?
Answer: This meeting was in whole focusing on the disability issue and then especially on the re-empowering of disabled persons and along with this meeting the other issues were also discussed.
The Afghan delegation who participated in this meeting fortunately got a chance to discuss on different issues including the disability in children, the budget for the disabled persons and many more related issues.
Question: Dear doctor; is this the first meeting regarding the disabled persons or before this meetings were conducted?
Answer: Obviously this was the first meeting regarding the re-empowering of the disabled persons which was conducted in Agra India but in the previous years we were the witness of such meetings which were conducted in different countries of the world. For example: we had meetings in Thailand, Philippine and also it is planned that the next meeting be conducted in Japan but regarding the re-empowering of the disabled persons it was decided to conduct the next
Question: Was there any discussion about the re-empowering of the Afghan disabled persons and what activities are going to be done in this regard?
Answer: The problem of the disability is the same all over the world but the type of disability differs in all over the world. The good point of this meeting was that some of the countries and institutions which were not previously supported the disabled persons of Afghanistan decided to come and work for the disabled persons in Afghanistan and they were keen in implementation of different kinds of the projects.
Question: Ok Mr. Mohebi; in your second meeting which was conducted in Geneva Switzerland what were the main topics of your discussion?
Answer: One of the important achievements for Afghanistan in the Geneva Meeting was the extension of mine clearance projects for the coming ten years and the discussions were focused on the issue that in the coming ten years Afghanistan will be free of mines land.
The other issue of this conference was the union of Afghanistan with three international conventions; first the 159 work convention, second the convention of stop underground mines and also the convention of disabled persons and this was one of the happiness point for the members of the conference.
From the other side in this conference as compare to the previous meetings on the monitoring of the implementation of the institutions working for the disabled persons were also discusses and on the issue of monitoring from the activities of these institutions more concentration was decided.
Question: After many years of the struggle and activities of institutions, how were the conditions of the availability of mines and victims of mines were evaluated?
Answer: It is to mention that in this conference the availability of mines issue was evaluated better and similarly based on the statistics of the ten years the victims of the mines were also nicely evaluated; for example ten years back on monthly basis there were three hundred victims but now it reduced to forty persons, whereas this forty people is also a high statistics but as compare to the previous years it is really reduced. But there are problems available regarding the disabled persons about their budget, unorganized conditions of the disabled persons in different areas are still considered as problems.
Question: Mr. Mohebi; based on the actions of the mine clearance institutions and support to the victims of the mines which kinds of responsibilities are focused to them and what decisions were made in this regard in the mentioned conference?
Answer: Well, regarding the monitoring of their activities all the institutions of the civil society are having the responsibility which includes the way of their activities and the methods that they are using and a fruitful coordination is required in this regard.
Question: Well; you have just mentioned about the union of Afghanistan in the three international conventions in the area of disability, is there the context of making these conventions practical in Afghanistan and what activities are accomplished regarding these conventions so far?
Answer: In the conference the discussions were on the achievements and problems but on the issues that how to implement these conventions practically was discussed in the individual meetings. Afghanistan has performed some activities regarding disability and the union of Afghanistan in these three conventions is the good examples.
Question: Mr. Mohebi; how are you evaluating the results of these meetings?
Answer: Without doubt that these meetings were useful, whenever the victims of mines and disabled persons are mentioning their problems, this by itself is the biggest achievement. From the other side the explaining of problems, listening to these problems by the countries and getting experience from the activities of the other foreign countries is extremely useful.
Question: Mr. Mohebi as a final question I would like to ask you that either any responsibility is given to the government of Afghanistan or not?
Answer: In the meeting conducted in Agra India, the discussions were general and there was nothing compulsory but it is an ethical job of the government of Afghanistan to pay attention to the topics of the meetings. But regarding the meeting of Geneva Switzerland it is to mention that in this conference on the issue of stop using cluster weapons and underground mines; which itself is showing that the government has to respect and pay attention to the points mentioned in this conference and after the passage of two years the government should have detailed report of their activities to the United Nations.
Many thanks for all of you that you followed our discussions until the end of the program.
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