Festival on the Rights of Persons with Disability at Hebron University Law School

Hebron University Law School, through its clinical programs, in collaboration with the YMCA in Jerusalem and the Law School’s Cultural Club, organized a festival on the rights of persons with disabilities in Palestine. The festival was opened by Dr. Salah Zaro, President of Hebron University, who emphasized the importance of having such event to raise community awareness on the rights of persons with disabilities, and to change the official policies in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in order to meet the needs of half a million Palestinians with disabilities. Speakers at the event were also: Dr. Mutaz Qafisheh, Dean of Law School, Mr. Nader Khallaf from YMCA, Mogira Awawdeh, Head of Law School’s Cultural Club, and two students Nebal Slamin and Hanadi Jubeh. Law students performed a theater play on the discrimination against persons with disabilities. The event was attended by some 200 people, including law students and professors, NGOs and governmental bodies, human rights activists, and journalists.

 
At the end of the festival, participants recommend the following:

• Call upon the Palestinian National Authority to effectively implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006 after the State of Palestine’s accession to the Convention on 1 April 2014. 
• Take precise actions towards the implementation of Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 1999, by allocating 5% of jobs in public and private sectors to them; ensure through the municipalities to allocate elevators and parking lots for people with disabilities in buildings and roads; reducing transportation fees for people with disabilities and their companions; and deducting taxes and have lower fees for them when using public facilities or cultural and entertainment institutions.
• Work on changing the negative social attitudes towards people with disabilities as people with rights not charity, through the media, schools and university education and through the imams.
• Setting up specialized legal clinic for the rights of persons with disabilities in Hebron University, to be added to the existing six clinical programs, in collaboration with the Palestinian Union of Disabled People and YMCA.
• Adopting of an academic course on the “Rights of Persons with Disabilities” as part of Hebron University Law School’s curricula.
• Work on Palestine’s accession to the Protocol to the UN International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• Impose penalties against those who violate the rights of disabled people.
• Prepare a high-quality and credible State report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disability, and urged NGOs to provide parallel reports to the Committee
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