Dear Countrymen! As you know the Radio Killid has always tried since two years to raise the level of public awareness in the community regarding rights, developments, problems of the disabled, suffered women and children through its program of Campaign of Change of Life that they themselves can solve their problems so we have this time a roundtable to have a research on disabled international convention.
Our esteemed guests in the roundtable are: Mr.Razi Khan Hamdard the advisor of department of Rehabilitation of disabled in ministry of health and coordinator of strategy of southern Asia Strategy or CBR network and Miss. Shakila Nazari the in charge of Justice Appeal Department of women in Organization of Afghans Affected by Mines and student of faculty of Psychology of Kabul university, we welcome them first and thank them for attending the round table.
We would like to ask first Mr. Hamdard
Question: Mr. Hamdard! What is the convention and what is its different with the law?
Answer: Well, I can say in reply that the decade between 1982 to 1992 was named decade of disabled, after this efforts were started for disabled, in order to the activists related to disabled can deliver services for appeal to justice and other required services so they could to prepare a draft of international convention in 2006 and suggested it to UN national assembly for approval, the work took place ten years on convention to be completed, the disability is now an international and developing issue that the governments of the countries are trying a lot to solve the problems of disabled, let us come and say what is the difference between the law and convention.
The law related to a limited field, namely the law is enacted based on customs, religions and other instances of a country as its disobedience is called the crime and the punishment is considered for its disobedience but the international or regional commitment is an entity that is being established for the issues and instances that are a shared legal problem and all the countries announce their commitment to the mentioned entity after deep study, if the country see one of the articles of the convention contrary to its interests the mentioned country accepts it conditionally such as International Convention of Disabled, as the disability is an international and global issue so all the countries have accepted it, it is mentionable that the countries should have directly commitment to convention and the people indirectly while the people should be directly committed to the law.
Question: Mrs. Nazari! As Afghanistan has signed the international convention of the disabled, is it enough beneficial to Afghan disabled?
Answer: The convention that Afghan government has signed has been beneficial in some measures for Afghan disabled to get their rights, for example the rights of study as the Afghan disabled can continue their studies inside or outside of the country through educational scholarships, the disabled also can find job in governmental office based the 3% of the structure allotted for disabled, the physical access that has been mentioned in the convention is another facility that the Afghan disabled has access to, as the ramps and lifts have been considered in the buildings.
Question: Mr. Hamdard! You told in previous statements that the customs and traditions of the country are considered during enacting a law, are the customs are considered in an international agreement which has international shape?
Answer: Yes, when the convention is being enacted first the issue of humanity is being considered, but still the countries either Muslims and non- Muslim shares their views during the establishing the convention whether they are based on Islamic laws, or based on the customs of the countries but still there problems that would be solved soon, the implementation of the convention needs many possibilities?
Question: What would be the criteria of the commitment of the country to convention?
Answer: There are possibilities as commitment to the international conventions that should exist, due to this Afghan government was the last country that signed the convention on disabled, when a country signs an international convention, it announces its commitment to the convention so this is necessary that the mentioned country report annually all the achievements and implementation of the convention and give the sure to convention that the country has specified possibilities for implementation the convention and can fit its commitment in long term strategies and plans for its implementation but unfortunately even the law that has been enacted by ourselves has not been implemented properly because neither nor the people are committed to it as many of the disabled are faced with difficulties in different fields and their rights have not been heeded, a number of 160 countries have signed the international convention of disabled and accepted it, a number of 50 countries are Asian countries among which the Arabic countries have good possibilities to implements their commitments regarding the disabled.
Question: Mrs.Nazari! Mr. Hamdard calls the lack of possibilities reason for not implementing the commitments so by your opinion which possibilities are needed for the international convention of disabled and law in Afghanistan?
Answer: As you know disability is a vast and international issue it has many types that there is need of economic, working, educational and social possibilities for each type of disability but for example we see the government establish one school for blind disabled in one year with very limited possibilities of education, this was a sample that I mentioned, the government has not provided proper possibility of physical access for disabled as I am a disabled when I come out of the house I am being treated as unable person that shows the lack of awareness carried out by the government and lack of possibilities.
Question: Mr. Hamdard! As you are coordinator of southern countries in Afghanistan so can you tell me has the convention of disabled been implemented in the mentioned countries?
Answer: There are eight countries of Southern Asia in the convention, the people as well the government are committed to the law and enunciate their responsibility well about, on the other hand the mentioned countries are next to each other from view point of culture and customs, their problems are similar so attention is paid to repelling the problems of the disabled and preparing the required facilities, but in Afghanistan till we don’t have united ideas and mentalities and we don’t have an united feeling against the disabled and solving their problems so the implementing the domestic and international laws and repelling the problems of the disabled would be difficult, on the other hand the requests of disabled are standing on legal base/foundation namely they give importance to the long term assistances therefore the related organizations accomplish their activities regularly their activities.
Question: Miss.Nazari! What do you think the issues propounded in Disabled International Convention are beneficial to Afghan disabled and what problems will cause for them the disorder of disabled?
Answer: Yes, as I have read the convention, all the needs and rights of the disabled have been inserted, good issues have been inserted as well, the disorder of disabled creates many problems for the disabled as the activists of the field of disability and donors would not be able to provide the assistances properly to disabled on the other hand most of our disabled are happy to get short term assistances and they don’t think about the problems that in future will occur to them, the organizations that work for disabled must have good coordination among themselves, they themselves must create an order as it has happened in some measure..
Question: Mr. Hamdard! You may know that why ,when and on which basis was the international convention of disabled established so can you tell me what basic steps the Afghan government has taken after signing the mentioned convention?
Answer: As much as I know no basic works have been accomplished based on the mentioned convention, only a few ministries has disseminated the news formally that Afghan government signed the international convention of the disabled, I have not seen any governmental strategy and plan that t show the government would accomplish this activity in the light of the mentioned convention, on the other hand less time has passed on the signing of the convention so no considerable work has been done, the Afghan government is committed to MDG which is a working frame, it is good to implement MDG but if it did not happened it is still fine and the government should explain in its annual report the reasons and challenges for not implementing the mentioned frame, the international convention must be enough strong and eligible for implementation as its implementation is a need, the government must study deeply the convention of disabled and other conventions then they would be able to make plans for their implementation. .
Question: Miss.Nazari! What works must be accomplished and which points must be heeded that the life of disabled get improvement?
Answer: I think if the disabled are let to have proper participation in economic, social, educational, political and rehabilitation fields, their abilities are used and public awareness is given to healthy people regarding the rights of the disabled so all the mentioned activities would cause the improvement of disabled life.
Question: Mr. Hamdard! What is your view how the disabled can have their role to get their rights and improve their life?
Answer: We all know that the right is not given rather it is gotten, so to get their rights the disabled must share their problems with governmental and nongovernmental organs and ask them the long term assistances, their order and request for long term assistances would put good effect on their life, as some of the organizations don’t have long term plans and don’t have any strategy to maintain themselves so when the donor stop its support the organizations also stop their activities and their started activities would also face the problem or would be ended unusably.
Follow TKG on Twitter & Facebook
