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NEWS > ‘Disability in Humanitarian Response’ in Pakistan
‘Disability in Humanitarian Response’ in Pakistan
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The report was formally launched when Ms. Nyghat Siddique, National Disaster Management Authority (right) represented a copy to Ms. Michelle Berg, Senior Protection Officer UNHCR (left). © CHEF |
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The Ageing and Disability Task Force (ADTF) launched a comprehensive report on ‘Ageing and Disability in Humanitarian Response: A Resource Book on Inclusive Practices’, on 27 June 2011 in Islamabad, Pakistan. This report brings together the available evidence to review how International NGOs, Disabled People Organisations and other stakeholders contributing in disability and ageing sector with mainstreaming of disability and/or ageing issues in their mandate. |
Persons with disabilities and older persons are often forgotten in the humanitarian response and reconstruction phase
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Older Persons (7.2 % of the total population) and persons with disabilities (10.3 % of the total population) equalling at least 3 million persons have been affected by the floods. Due to the massive extent of the floods and ensuing crisis, and relying on repeated past experience of such crises, persons with disabilities and older persons are forgotten in the humanitarian response and reconstruction phase.
Response by the main agencies is designed uniformly and therefore does not take into account the particular vulnerabilities and contributions of different groups within the population such as persons with hearing, visual, physical and intellectual disabilities, and older persons. If no particular attention is paid towards their inclusion and participation in the humanitarian response, these persons will remain largely 'invisible' and cannot access properly and equally relief measures and early recovery response initiatives.
Disability Task Force was formed in September 2010 to ensure that older persons and persons with disabilities are included in the emergency and early recovery response in Pakistan via mainstreaming.
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The Ageing and Disability Task Force includes representatives of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Directorate General of Special Education (DGSE), UNHCR, WHO, UNHABITAT, UN Women, UNFPA, INGOs, NGOs and Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) |
Pakistan has ratified the UN Convention and joined the 100 countries who acknowledge the rights of persons with disabilities
The publication of this report comes at a time when the government of Pakistan has further demonstrated its commitment to improve the lives of persons with disabilities through ratifying the 'UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities' (UN CRPD) on June 6th, 2011. The purpose of this convention is to promote, defend and reinforce the human rights of for the estimated 650 million persons with disabilities (including women) worldwide.
Pakistan is also a signatory to the 2002 ‘Madrid International Plan of Action’ on ageing, which calls for each older person to have a secure income, access to health care, a safe place to live, an opportunity to participate in the community, opportunities for continuous learning and personal growth, protection from harm from those he/she should be able to trust, and the right to make decisions for him/herself.
The task force members have made steady progress but much more needs to be done
This report brings together the available evidence to review how international non-governmental organisations, disabled people’s organisations and other stakeholders are contributing to services in the disability and ageing sector while mainstreaming disability and/or ageing issues into their mandate.
In producing this report the taskforce became aware that there was a lot of useful data collected by ADTF member organisations which have helped to review the areas for further progress. However it has also become apparent that more needs to be done to ensure consistent data collection disaggregated by impairment type, gender and age is still to be initiated throughout the humanitarian response.
This report outlines the ADTF member organisations’ commitment towards mainstreaming ageing and disability in humanitarian response, with the support of the ‘Protection Thematic Working Group’ and future endeavours of ADTF. It concludes by acknowledging the steady progress ADTF members have made to date whilst recognising the continued need for focused action and developing technical guidelines initially for health, wash and shelter.
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