President of the AFRPD Sylvana Lakkis was invited to the meeting held by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at the ESCWA building in Beirut yesterday for a dialogue with representatives of civil society organizations.
The speech was delivered by colleague Lakkis:
“In Gaza, disabled people are annihilated and tortured, and I can’t find the right words to describe these crimes. At the same time, I don’t see you adopting an effective mechanism to hold Israeli criminals accountable: First, the UN Security Council when it adopts a resolution and the US vetoes it; and second, through the International Criminal Court, which issues resolutions but whose decisions are not enforced. America continues to financially support Israel, providing it with more weapons to continue to exterminate the Palestinian people, whose numbers have dwindled as a result of Israeli murders. You must find a way to put an end to the genocide and hold the criminals and all those who support the ongoing crime accountable.
In Lebanon, there is supposedly a ceasefire, but the Israeli enemy continues to violate it, bombing and killing every day, and there is no one to stop it. What justice and what action!
Finally, I want to ask: Why are we the disabled not in your discourse, despite the painful reality in the region, where wars in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Syria are taking place, and we constitute, according to your organization, 15 percent of the population, and the number is escalating. Even the UN organizations that our countries rely on for humanitarian and disaster assistance are themselves failing in their commitment to implement inclusion in the projects they implement in our countries or the grants they provide. This is an unacceptable reality that must change, and your rhetoric must include people with disabilities. The killing in Palestine and Lebanon must stop immediately now, and you must prevent it from spreading to Syria. Again, you must break the deadlock and find solutions to save Gaza and the West Bank now, immediately.”
