They wanted to leave it on land, but Ola Abu Al Ghaib (Nablus, Palestine, 1973) is not one of those who give up easily. He did not do so when, at age 16, surgery to remove a tumor caused him to lose mobility in his legs and reduced that of one arm (since then, he uses a wheelchair). Not when, shortly after, he had to move from Ramallah, where until then he lived with his family, to Bethlehem, to continue his studies in a private school with the necessary adaptations. So much less was he going to do it when he went to catch a flight in Cairo in 2008, the portable chair he needed to access the plane was missing.
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“The crew insisted that I could walk a few steps, as a previous passenger had done, they didn't understand that I couldn't walk at all. There came a point where they didn't even want to accept that I embarked, because they simply didn't know what to do. But I insisted, and the flight was delayed two hours until they found a portable chair available on another plane, ”explains Abu Al Ghaib, as an example of how far the lack of knowledge about the inclusion of people with disabilities is.
That although it is not a minority issue. 15% of the world's population, one billion people, have disabilities, according to the World Health Organization, and, of them, 80% (800 million) live in developing countries, where, as Abu Al Ghaib confirms from His extensive professional and personal experience, the challenges are greater due to the lack of resources and infrastructure. UNESCO warns that 90% of children with functional diversity in developing countries do not go to school. Al Ghaib is currently responsible for the technical secretariat of the UN Multidonor Fund for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD).
In his case, the Palestinian expert had to separate, as a teenager, from her family to go to an adapted school in another city: "It was the only option for me to continue my education," he recalls. After finishing college, he worked for a rehabilitation center for Palestinian wounded in the conflict with Israel for a few years, offering them the necessary support to reintegrate into the community. She knows in first person the extra difficulties that a person with a disability entails living “in a country with constant instability and fragile government systems”, with the limitations that this entails in terms of infrastructure.
Also when he worked with the organization Humanity and Inclusion (formerly, Handicap International, in English), and had to travel through several countries in the Middle East (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine), he had to face the difficulties many times which means the lack of transport and inclusive facilities. "I had to find original solutions such as calling the taxi companies and asking them to remove the back seats, or scanning the entire country to find an accessible hotel," he recalls.
Now, with his experience and studies (he has a PhD in social protection and disability), and from his current responsibility in the technical secretariat of the UN Multi-Donor Fund, he works to deepen the inclusion of these people, especially in developing countries.
From his perspective, "it is complex to understand why we have not made more progress in this world, despite the fact that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been adopted for 14 years." Then, he recalls, many people thought that a faster transformation would be developed in this area. However, in his opinion: "When you go down to the ground, the lives of those who are part of this group have not truly changed."
The crew insisted that I could walk a few steps, as a previous passenger had done, they did not understand that I could not walk at all
Why? "I think the main reason is that we have not been able to influence governments sufficiently, which are the ones who have the responsibility, and if we manage to change that level, there will be more sustainability and equality, in areas such as tax systems, rights and services," considers. That is why he considers the Multi-Donor Fund for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities so important, which was created in 2011 to support the implementation of the Convention approved in 2006, “because it involves different actors, including governments, to advance rights of these people, through financial and technical support to programs focused on different areas (such as education, reproductive health, social protection) ”.
Abu Al Ghaib claims that this condition aligns "equally" with other aspects of development, and rejects those who point to its complexity to achieve it. “It is a reality that when we talk about disability we talk about different types, which need different requirements from governments to respond to those differences. But it is not complicated; neither is it more complex than other social issues, nor is it impossible to achieve, ”he proclaims.
Of course, he admits that the countries with the highest income, especially Europe and the United States, have made more progress in this area, "not only with respect to resources, but also with respect for equality and non-discrimination." And although it ensures that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is one of the most successful in terms of interest by governments (188 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have ratified it), it also warns that "this support has not led to a genuine alignment of national policies and systems."
However, the technical secretary of the Multidonor Fund emphasizes that there are currently excellent opportunities to advance these rights. On the one hand, the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with the commitment of “leaving no one behind”, promotes greater inclusion for people with disabilities.
In addition, last June, the UN implemented the Strategy for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, which aims to increase its presence and prominence in this institution. And, with the same forcefulness with which he persevered to maintain his right to board that plane in Cairo, Abu Al Ghaib insists: “Simply, all governments need to make sure that they include these people in their agendas and that they are not marginalized. "
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