Arab League experts to help prepare Libya's classification of people with disabilities
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Minister of Social Affairs in the Government of National Unity, Wafaa al-Kilani, Friday met with experts from the League of Arab States in the social sector, led by the Minister Plenipotentiary, Tarek al-Nabulsi, to prepare the Libyan classification of people with disabilities aimed at supporting them.
Wafaa al-Kilani expressed her delight at the holding in Libya of the first meeting of experts between the Ministry and the social sector of the League of Arab States within the framework of joint Arab cooperation mechanisms, according to a statement issued by the Ministry.
Mr. Al-Nabulsi thanked the minister for her warm welcome and for organizing and coordinating the meeting, stressing the Arab League's concern to support programmes for people with disabilities and joint Arab cooperation.
The Libyan official noted that the ministry was seeking, as part of its plan, to prepare the Libyan classification of disability to complement initiatives to support the rights of people with disabilities as part of the "Return of Life" initiative launched by the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdulhamid al Dbaiba, and in application of the decisions of the Council of Arab Ministers for Social Affairs and the recommendations of the 2023 Arab Summit.
With regard to Libya's experience in providing support and care for people with disabilities, the Libyan Ministry's social expert, Dr Ali Faraj, confirmed that Libya was one of the first countries to ratify international agreements aimed at supporting the rights of people with disabilities and their empowerment in society in terms of employment opportunities and social rights.
He stressed that Libya was interested in people with disabilities in various fields, whether education, health, or sports, assuring that diligent efforts were being made in this area as part of the implementation of the Social Protection Law, including the employment of people with disabilities in all sectors of the State, whether public or private.
He described the minister's efforts to launch preparations for the Libyan project to classify people with disabilities as a major achievement that was helping to develop the services provided and step up the support given to them.
The Libyan Minister for Social Affairs added that she was working on a roadmap to develop a new model for classifying and assessing disability, in addition to moving towards a comprehensive classification of disability in Libya, with the participation of an elite group of political decision-makers and civil society organizations specializing in the field of disability in Libya.
The results of this project will be submitted to the Supreme Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, chaired by the Prime Minister and members of the ministries concerned with this category.
The Chairman of the Management Committee of the Social Solidarity Fund, Mustafa Al-Juaibi, reviewed the Fund's efforts to provide benefits and rights to people with disabilities and the statistics concerning them, assuring that electronic services will soon be launched for them as part of the Minister's vision to digitize the sector's services to make life easier for people with disabilities.
These include information platforms and a smart card for the category of people with disabilities which are in line with the harmonization of legislation relating to people with disabilities and the current requirements to integrate them into society.
Dr. Dina Omar, an expert in social protection and health systems, explained that one of the aims of creating a unified classification for assessing disability in Libya was to identify the needs of disabled people, each according to the degree and nature of their disability.
She pointed out that this was discovered thanks to newly developed assessment mechanisms, after the majority of Arab countries had made do with medical assessment alone.
She emphasized that the adoption of the unified Libyan classification must be based on practical elements of classification that go beyond the medical standard, without diminishing it, but integrating it with the rest of the standards, such as the skills standard, the societal standard, the level of education, and so on.
As part of the expert committee's work programme, a number of visits will be organized to centres providing services for people with disabilities and a number of coordination meetings will be held to discuss executive procedures for classifying disability and procedures for raising the level of services and care available to this segment.
-0- PANA BY/IS/SOC/BBA/RA 3May2024
