With the name of Kind God, I welcome you all to this round table which is going to present to your with the support of Change in Life Compiegne.
The topic of our today’s discussion is about the voting rights of the disabled persons and the guests that we have for this discussion are:
Mr. Ali Mohabati, Coordinator for the support and development of disabled persons programs of independence human rights commission for Afghanistan
Mr. Muhammad Sadiq Mohibi member of the Commission of lawsuit of rights for the disabled persons
Mr. Samiulhaq Sami; Advisor to the lawsuit and awareness of the Handicap international; and
Mr. Ali Afzali; head of the aggregation center of disabled persons.
With many thanks from the dear guests; the first question is from Mr. Mohibi.
Question: As we are all in the picture after the dissolution of the Taliban regime; we were the witness of many elections; based on the law each and every person has the voting right, how do you evaluate the problems of the disabled persons?
Answer: As everyone who is bona fide has the right of voting but unfortunately the disabled persons as they have to use this right they haven’t used it and there are many reasons behind this.
At the first step was the lack of implementation of election law; where the article No 14 of election law states that for the Afghan nationals who are displaced to other countries and the disabled persons the proper conditions should be provided; where this thing was not available and therefore their participation was very weak in the elections.
Question: Mr. Mohibi; what do you think about the effects of unavailability of facilities on the results of elections?
Answer: Obsoletely, the lack of provision of facilities has taken the rights of a bigger mass of the society; where not only the disabled persons could elect their representative but it had its effects on the number of votes.
Question: As we know that the representative of the disabled persons are also selective not elective in the Senate meeting, why?
Answer: Based on the article No 84 of the national constitute; among the 34 persons who are going to be selected by the president, two of them should be from the disabled persons and therefore it is selective.
Question: Mr. Mohabati; with consideration to the sayings of Mr. Mohibi, what are the most important problem of the disabled persons during the voting?
Answer: based on my opinion; the most important problem during the process of election was the inaccessibility of some categories of the disabled persons i.e. there are from 50 to 100 blinds living in the country and they could not participate in the election process because the elections papers were not written with the brail writing and they couldn’t vote; where it was the responsibility of the commission to discuss these problems before printing them outside the country.
Question: Mr. Sami; have you been the witness of the persons having disability in the voting process?
Answer: I have to honestly say; as the government promised many facilities for the voters but it was less implemented, therefore the participation of the disabled persons were very weak in the elections.
Question: Mr. Afzali; wouldn’t you think that a big vulnerable layer of the society which is composed of the disabled persons left behind from their rights in this process?
Answer: Yes, as it is mentioned all the bona fide persons have the right to vote but unfortunately to say that the disables could not use their rights.
The aggregation center of disabled persons in the year 2012 conducted a survey in Kabul; where in this survey it shows that from the 100% of the disabled persons only 60% of them could participate in the election process and the remaining 40% of them failed to use their rights; some of them said that they didn’t have the voting cards and they were unaware of the distribution time and some of them who had their cards but the conditions in the voting areas were not favorable could not vote.
Question: Mr. Mohibi; who is responsible that the disabled persons could not participate in election process?
Answer: Well; this problem is mostly concerned to the independence election commission, because as it was mentioned in the law that the facilities should be provided for the disabled persons but could not provide and as a result we can say that the commission is the responsible.
Question: As everyone highlighted that the inaccessibility in the voting areas was one of the problems on the way of the disabled persons; is there any solution found for this problem or not?
Answer: The election commission cannot provide the locations from the beginning but the locations which are selected by the commission should be the places where these facilities are available; it should not be tall buildings like schools, hospitals etc. This problem could be solved with the help of the law; although some of the points are mentioned in the law of disabled persons but better if in this regard a new law is developed.
Question: Mr. Muhabati; based on your opinion, what the reasons behind the lack of implementation of laws in Afghanistan and then especially the disabled persons laws?
Answer: Whenever we are presenting the surveys; we are trusting on them, the survey which is conducted in 2005 shows that 2/7 of the people are disabled, whereas now we are in 2012 and there are possibilities that because of the new accidents there would be some new disabled persons and from the statistics the international organizations showing are saying that from the 10% figure the percentage of the disabled persons increased to 15% in all over the world where the increase is also touchable from Afghanistan; we can only implement the law when we understand their rights.
Question: Mr. Mohibi; you were supposed to mentioned some the biased based issues in the election, please proceed?
Answer: As there are many positive points in the election law which needs to be appreciated; as in the article 14 it is discussed about the facilities but in the coming articles when we arrived we see the resignations of the representatives, where a very biased based issue is mentioned which are against the human rights; as well as it is against the disabled persons law i.e. in the article 22 of the membership of district meetings it is mentioned that whenever a representative does not acquire his/her seat or based on any reason leave it and or become disabled which would be the permanent disability then his/her seat would be given to the next candidate with more votes and same sex or gender. The point for consideration is that disability is not inability but they are a diverse layer of people in the society.
Question: Mr. Sami; you please tell us that what actions are required to be taken until we resolve this problem?
Answer: Based on my point of views after the first election the focus of the government has decreased from the disabled persons which led that the disabled persons could not participate in the different sectors. There is not consideration for them, they are not involved in the decision makings and whenever these problems are solved then to some extent this defect would also be solved.
Question: What is your opinion that during the last 10 years the responsible institutions knowingly or unknowingly not considered the disabled persons?
Answer: The institutions working for the disabled persons are punctual in their work; I don’t think so that they are careless in regard; but the point for consideration is that no authority is given to them and as their facilities are less so they couldn’t do much in this regard.
Question: Mr. Afzali; what activities are accomplished by the institutions working regarding the advocacy from the rights of the disabled persons?
Answer: In response to your question; I would like to say that they had some visible activities like having the lawsuit committee which always advocate from the rights of the disabled persons, struggle of the institutions regarding the right of disabled persons in the voting and elections, request for the advocacy of the disabled persons from FIFA which is working as a coordination body in the process of election until the disabled person could use the rights in this process.
Question: My last question is focused to all guests; for the solution of these problems what should be done?
محبتي صاحب :
Mr. Muhabati:
Answer: Based on my opinion the first and most import point is the implementation of law which means that whenever a law is developed then it should be implemented; secondly standardization should take place at the society level so that all the members of the society deserve their rights and from the other side the same credit should be given to the disabled people as given to the normal persons.
Mr. Sami:
Answer: Bringing changes in the law of election, securing the overall law of the disabled persons and all of its implementation.
Mr. Afzali:
Answer: Provision of awareness about the rights of the disabled persons, active lawsuit for the implementation of the law, adjustment to the laws which are against the human rights, ensuring the security because in most of the provinces the security is not stable yet and this is why there are problem in the implementation of laws.
Mr. Mohibi:
Answer: Giving proper position to the disabled persons in the laws implementation commission, the election commission should focus on the digital voting system and they should reconsider about their hiring, proper awareness to different layers.
Many thanks form the dear guests that they have participated in today’s discussions; this was todays program that was presented to you good bye.
