The Army Command announced today that as of tomorrow morning (Tuesday, April 14), it will start providing the social assistance approved by the Council of Ministers, according to the nominal lists received from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, while the Disability Rights Observatory is receiving multiple complaints from people with various disabilities from the far north to the far south that the municipalities in charge of submitting the nominal lists neglected to include their names in those lists, or postponed their names to some “supplement.” In the meantime, the Joud Campaign (the civilian campaign to support people with disabilities in the face of the coronavirus) has been working with modest means, aiming to secure needs related to various disabilities. In parallel, the “Joud” campaign (the civil campaign to support people with disabilities in the face of the coronavirus) is working with very modest means to meet the needs of people with various disabilities.

The Observatory for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would like to point out that many people with disabilities in Lebanon, who constitute more than ten percent of the population, are outside the calculations of parties and affiliations, are not noticed by municipalities, and have no means of access in the absence of a barrier-free engineering environment. In addition, many of them were not previously included in the lists of the poorest families for various reasons.

The responsibility is serious at this stage, and falls primarily on the mukhtars of neighborhoods, towns and villages and members of municipal councils, who are in direct contact with disabled citizens and have the possibility of including them on the lists. We call on them to rise above all political and partisan considerations and give this category of citizens the importance required in accordance with considerations of human solidarity and human rights.

This responsibility also creates an opportunity to prepare municipal lists of people with disabilities, in the absence of any serious and comprehensive census of their numbers and types of disabilities, and the historical neglect of their right to obtain their minimum rights. Let us cooperate towards a society that respects its sons and daughters in all circumstances.