Earlier this week, Dr. Tamadur Bint Yousef Al-Rammah, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Development, revealed that Saudi Arabia is devising a national strategy featuring 23 initiatives that have been designed to serve and take care of people with disabilities.
Speaking at the 11th Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the United Nations (UN) headquarters, Dr. Al-Rammah said, “The Kingdom also forges a national program to diagnose and classify the phenomenon of disability in addition to setting up a national registry including uniform data base and statistics.”
Dr. Al-Rammah, who was recently appointed member of the United Nations (UN) committee on of the Convention on Elimination of all kinds of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), highlighted a raft of measures taken by the government to promote welfare of this segment of the society and ensure their full integration into the society. She also pointed to an initiative by the Kingdom to enhance early intervention and to expand the public schools’ integration program, to provide professional training, and to apply a comprehensive access program.
“This year, Saudi Arabia has established a special commission to take care of the affairs of the people with special needs as an umbrella and reference body to put the regulations, legislations and special policies pertaining to them. The Kingdom also started implementing working plans for their empowerment as well as for enhancing awareness about their causes and providing support and consultancy for them,” explained Dr. Al-Rammah.
She also went on to explain that the focus on people with special needs has been a priority for Saudi Arabia since 2000, when the Disability Law was established to guarantee the rights of persons with disabilities, including protection, care, and rehabilitation.
Leaders across the world have long proclaimed that a country’s greatest asset is human capital. Under the guidance of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman since his ascension last year, this belief in a nation’s citizens rings truer than ever in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom has been working towards realizing the main objectives of its Vision 2030, a national strategy to create a vibrant society and a strong economy, with the intent to also provide every Saudi citizen, including those with special needs, with opportunities to excel and succeed, ultimately ensuring their independence and integration as effective members of society.
