save children

1. Presented by:
Alaa Sebeh, MD Ph.D.
Regional Advocacy & Social Protection Advisor
SAVE THE CHILDREN UK
Middle East and North Africa
a.sebeh@scuk-mena.com
Disabled Children Rights
Experiences from the Field Supporting the
Proposed Draft Article 16 Suggested by the
‘International Disability Caucus’

2. Rights of CwDs to
access and utilise fully
adapted mainstream
services
Based on
SC UK
experience
s in MENA
region
-
- NO access to
Public Libraries
- 2% accessing Youth
Clubs (SC UK mapping
research in Egypt)
- Less than 2% accessing
KGs / Primary
Schools/ Informal
Education or any
forms of education
Evidences
demonstrating
the denial of
these rights in
Egypt

3. Rights of CwDs to express their views &
recognition of their evolving capacities to exercise their
rights.
Adult
Controlled
Environment
• Domination of facilitators
(e.g. the Egyptian National
Network of disabled Youths).
• Domination of Parents
• Domination of adults with
disabilities
• Media personnel.
Challenges facing SC UK Mena in our attempts to
promote the capacities of disabled children to voice
their needs, demand their rights and decide for
themselves.

4. Rights for Birth Registration
Causes of
non-
registration
• Registration offices are
centralised in urban areas
•Parent registering a birth are required to
be registered themselves. (Often the case
in rural south Morocco)
• Costs of birth registration ( Morocco)
• Stigmatisation of illegitimate children
and discrimination of their mothers lead to
non-registration (due to unwillingness to
be identified).
• Denial of the existence of a CwD
(prevent daughter marriage).
Children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to non-
registration, and their existence sometimes denied by their families
(in Yemen and Morocco the rate is very low at 50% and 70 to 90%
respectively).

5. Rights of CwDs not to be
separated from families.
Government records seldom monitor the
numbers and causes of admission of
children.
There are almost 30,000 in Morocco and
25,000 in Lebanon.
Over 85% of children in Lebanon, Egypt and
Morocco have two parents alive.
In country X, government spends almost
70% of its social affairs budget on direct
payments to institutions.
Institutionalisation of CwDs is a major challenge, SC UK
research in 2001 revealed: inappropriate admissions,
isolation and low self-esteem among children, low levels of
educational attainment and high unemployment among care
leavers, lack of protection measures, and weak quality
standards.
Case
studies
and
evidences
from SC
UK works
in MENA

6. Rights of CwDs to be protected
• Abuse can often go unrecognised and unreported due to
people's attitudes and assumptions about disability (e.g.
assuming that physical injury or 'challenging' behaviour is a
result of a child's disability not indicative of abuse).
• Disabled children who've been abused rarely get justice
as they are often considered 'un-credible witnesses'.
• Disabled children often lack the necessary language to
communicate that they are being abused.
• There is a common failure to consult with disabled
children about their experiences, wishes and feelings,
leaving them with little control over their lives.
• Current child protection systems and practices do not
take account of the particular circumstances and needs of
disabled children who are abused

7. Rights of CwDs to be protected
• Abuse can often go unrecognised and unreported due to
people's attitudes and assumptions about disability (e.g.
assuming that physical injury or 'challenging' behaviour is a
result of a child's disability not indicative of abuse).
• Disabled children who've been abused rarely get justice
as they are often considered 'un-credible witnesses'.
• Disabled children often lack the necessary language to
communicate that they are being abused.
• There is a common failure to consult with disabled
children about their experiences, wishes and feelings,
leaving them with little control over their lives.
• Current child protection systems and practices do not
take account of the particular circumstances and needs of
disabled children who are abused