Disability Inclusion Conference

On Thursday, March 25, 2021, Assist. Prof. Dr. Riadh Francis, the president and Vice-chancellor of the Catholic University in Erbil (CUE) attended a conference entitled ” Disability Inclusion” at Rotana Hotel, chaired and organized by the UN Migration (IOM) with the support of Mitisubishi Corporation (MC).

The project aimed at building the capacity of the five OPDS through series of training. As part of the capacity building, the five OPDS based in Erbil were supported to writing their own initiatives and work on addressing key weakness around disability inclusion in Erbil. The project also consisted of other components related to advocacy and awareness with stakeholders in Erbil that were all conducted by the five OPDS.

The conference was attended by a significant number of attendees from various fields, including members of Kurdistan Region Parliament, representatives of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities, NGOs, Erbil Governorate, and representatives of the Higher Education sect.

The conference was enriched by valuable discussions all highlighting the paramount necessity of taking care of persons with disabilities who suffer from social stigma, negligence, and lack of integration into their society, let alone the need of having expertise and highly specialized staff and institutions, all aiming at much better care to this category of people. 

There were also significant stress on the need of raising awareness of all relevant parties along with the whole society about the basic principles of protecting and observing the legitimate rights of disabled persons. 

The president of CUE took an active role in discussions on behalf of CUE.