Electing a Moroccan expert as a member of a UN committee

The Moroccan expert, known as Abdelmadjid, was elected as a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, during the seventeenth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, held in New York from June 11 to 13.

Al-Makni, who was the candidate of the Kingdom of Morocco in the elections designated for membership in the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, was elected after he received the support of the League of Arab States and many countries friendly to Morocco.

It is noteworthy that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a body that includes independent experts, and is concerned with monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by States Parties. Elections are held once every two years, and members are elected for a period of four years in line with Article 34 of the Convention.

Morocco was represented at the seventeenth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which met under the title “Rethinking the Integration of the Disability Perspective at the Current International Stage and Before the Future Summit,” by Awatef Hiar, Minister of Solidarity, Social Inclusion and the Family.

In a speech she delivered on the occasion, Hiar expressed Morocco’s commitment to “preserving and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities,” as the disability dimension has been integrated into social protection workshops to include children with disabilities, and the value of direct social support allocated to their families has been increased.

The Minister of Solidarity, Social Inclusion and the Family stated that the decree related to granting a card to a person with a disability was approved “based on a system for assessing disability according to the classification of the World Health Organization,” and she confirmed that the Moroccan government redoubled its efforts to prepare “a basket of health and social services directed to people with a disability.” Within the framework of the social protection system, according to a participatory approach with civil society and experts.”

Hayar recorded that the government has doubled the number of children benefiting from schooling from needy families, to reach 26,000 boys and girls in 2023, in addition to organizing a unified competition for persons with disabilities in 2024 to employ 400 people in public employment, with the percentage of females reaching 30 percent.

The government official indicated in her speech that a “memorandum of understanding was signed to establish the contractual framework between the state and the private sector to employ people with disabilities, and expand the program.” [نسمع] To implant cochlear implants for the benefit of deaf children, in partnership with the Lalla Asmaa Foundation for the Deaf and Mute, to include sisterly African countries, and to launch an early diagnosis programme.”

Hiar confirmed the establishment of temporary spaces in the areas affected by the Al Haouz earthquake to accompany people with disabilities in obtaining a disability certificate and providing compensatory devices and social assistance, as well as disseminating the national program “Walouja Cities,” in partnership with territorial communities.

The Minister expressed the Kingdom’s aspiration to enhance international cooperation in the field of “promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, and openness to all initiatives and projects aimed at improving the conditions of this group.”