Persons with disabilities are the needy layer and a massive category of the society which have faced many problems in the recent years of war. The most important factors of disability in the country are the wars, lack of humanitarian facilities for the mothers, newborns and in overall people of the society and because of these elements most of the people either because of the war effects or lack of health facilities, economics, social and many others could become disabled.
Fortunately after the dissolution of the black regime of Taliban and by creation of the transitional, interim and elected government of Afghanistan and with the support of international community many institutions in the developments of people especially vulnerable layers are created.
With the establishment of national constitute of Afghanistan; the civil society institutions based on the law started their activities and one of those organizations is independence human rights commission of Afghanistan. The activities of this institution includes different segments of the society especially the vulnerable layers where I (Masoud Ansar) will introduce the section working for the disabled persons and would like to conduct an interview with Mr. Ali Mohabati who is working as the coordinator for the support and development of disabled persons programs of independence human rights commission for Afghanistan and I will appreciate the attention of the audience in this regard.
Question: Mr. Mohabati; first of all I will appreciate if you share the activities of the independence human rights commission of Afghanistan in regard to the disabled persons?
Answer: The independence human right commission is created based on the article 58 of the national constitutes and has to follow and monitor all the issues of the human rights in Afghanistan.
The first priority of this commission is to consider the vulnerable layer of the society and based on these needs in the year 2005 a section under the name of legal support and development for the disabled persons were created under the framework of independence human rights commission; and from that time to now in the eight field offices of independence human rights commission this section is operating.
The activities that are accomplished in these centers by the employees are supervision, awareness and lawsuit from the rights of disabled persons.
Question: In which provinces of Afghanistan the independence human rights commission is operating?
Answer: The independence human rights commission offices are having two sections, the first is field offices and the other is the provincial offices; the field office of Kabul covers the surrounding provinces which include Parwan, Kapisa, Logar, Ghazni. We brought these provinces under our coverage area and in each of these provinces the employees of this commission do exist.
From the other side; the field offices of Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz, and Jalalabad are covering the surrounding provinces from the supervision and support of the rights perspectives.
Question: Is the section working for the disabled are available in all field offices or not?
Answer: As I mentioned before; the disabled section is only available in the field offices and in other provincial offices for the support and continual of other humanitarian programs we could have not established the disabled section yet.
Question: In the areas where you are working, is there any issue that you have faced which has become an obstacle for your activities or not?
Answer: As you better know the activities of the independence human rights commission for Afghanistan is to consider the needs of the vulnerable layers of the society including children, derelict women and disabled persons; therefore until now we have not faced with any security or social problem. But the point to mention here is that these disabled persons in the society are facing problem like misbehavior of others and for these issues we have started programs so that we give awareness to all the layer of people in the society and we aware them from each other’s rights.
Question: Among the activities that the independence human rights commission of Afghanistan has; especially in the section of disabled persons are lawsuit, supervision and support, until now how productive were your efforts and activities in these regards?
Answer: Based on the activities of this institution, we could create the law of the rights and facilities for the disabled persons with cooperation of lawsuit committee and ministry of labor affairs, martyr and disables. A legal umbrella is created to legally support these people; similarly the commission succeeded with the support of other institutions to compel the government for joining the international convention of disabled persons; where with this supportive umbrella we can see the future of these organizations working for the disabled personalities until we monitor them and we work hard for them.
Question: In the section of disabled persons; what does your supervision of activities mean, do you think that this institution has accomplished its activities properly?
Answer: To some extent the governmental and non-governmental organizations has accomplished their activities in the areas of disabled persons, for example; based on these activities there were institutions created meetings with the relevant ministries and other relevant institutions like municipality where they took commitment that they will work for the support and development of disabled persons by creating plans and programs and this commitment could be considered as a great achievement regarding the disabled persons.
From the other side our supervision from the government institutions causes that most of the disabled people could get employment in these institutions. Because whenever we have visited, we have asked that how many disabled people are working in your ministry; where these supervision and follow ups could give a great number of disabled employment. Also the independence human rights commission with the cooperation of other institutions could draw the attention of relevant organizations about the provision of employment facilities for the disabled persons; where we can name as an example the building of some places for the technical trainings of the disabled persons in capital and provinces.
Question: The laws and statements created regarding the disabled persons are having practical aspects or like other sectors it is also on the piece of paper?
Answer: Fortunately I can say that those institutions working regarding the activities of the disabled have reached to the limit that they have started the lawsuit for the rights of the disabled persons, now the disabled or not behind finding a bag of flour, now they have received the awareness to the extent that they are asking the sector ministries for the long term plans and programs regarding their employments and other aspects of their needs; where this itself is a great change in the area of disability.
But the point I would like to mention is that unfortunately the government institutions and other international institutions have not taken in their priority the topic of disability.
Question: Mr. Mohabati; one of the activities of the commission is to have supervision over the activities of those institutions working regarding disabled persons; is the independence human rights commission has supervision on the budgets received by different organizations regarding the support of disabled persons or not?
Answer: Unfortunately I would say that regarding the budget and financial aspects for the disabled persons we don’t have any supervision but we have proposed to them that regarding the betterment of the conditions of the disabled persons what programs and plans are fruitful.
Question: If the commission found that an institution under name of support to the disabled persons received a budget and a corruption is done there or is misused then what is the responsibility of the commission in this regard?
Answer: To the point we have identified these institutions, all these institutions are led by disabled persons and the disabled are really sensitive in this regard and they are not giving any opportunity for anyone in this regard, but if we show reaction to such issues, it is one of our duties and responsibilities to contact them and prevent such actions.
Question: As a last question I would like to ask; how the independence human rights commission is assessing the current situations of the disabled persons, Can we be optimistic in the near future about the activities going on regarding the disabled persons?
Answer: Yes, if we look at the overall conditions of the people in the country, the human rights conditions are not defined well, where this could cause that the persons having disability may have serious problems as compare to others.
But I have optimistic views because of the struggles and lawsuits done regarding the disabled persons and we hope that in the future more practically and really we work for the betterment of the conditions of disabled persons.
With many thanks from you Mr. Ali Mohabati, the head of support and development of disabled persons department of the field office of independence human rights commission in Afghanistan and you dear friends that you follow our discussion until end; until next discussions good bye.
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