# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Disabled people in Lebanon continue to be marginalised in terms of education and employment, according to a new report released on Saturday.

The study, entitled "Disability and Inclusion in Lebanon," was released by a grouping of NGOs devoted to issues concerning the disabled.

Participant organisations included the Youth Association of the Blind, the Lebanese Physically Handicapped Union, the Lebanese Down Syndrome Association and Save the Children Sweden.

"The lack of equal access to quality education has contributed to a situation where people with disabilities are often deprived of gaining basic knowledge and skills necessary to becoming full members of society," the report found.

Under Lebanese Law, all children with disabilities have the right to attend regular schools. But according to local social-development specialist Sahar Tabaja, "this law in not respected."

"The majority of children with disabilities are in special care institutions, and private schools have a policy of automatically eliminating students with disabilities," said Tabaja, who works with the National Inclusion Project, launched by the NGOs in 2004 with the aim of improving quality of life for the disabled.

The report also criticises the lack of professionals in schools trained specifically to teach the disabled.

According to National Inclusion Project Manager Maha Damaj, only a handful of schools nationwide cater to pupils with special needs. "About 20 schools allow entry to children with disabilities, but it's up to the parents and the children to adapt to the curriculum," she said.

In terms of employment, while both private- and public-sector companies are obliged to employ specified quotas of disabled workers, the positions available often come with low wages and without health and social benefits.

"They [the disabled] are often taken advantage of, and are forced to work for longer hours for smaller salaries," said Tabaja.

The study makes a number of recommendations, including the improvement of the role of government authorities on issues concerning the disabled and greater implementation of inclusion-based policies.

"Strengthening the role of the parents and supporting the role of NGOs, which often replace public institutions, are key to inclusion," said Tabaja.

She also pointed to the need for specialised support and information services, noting, "People with disabilities searching for employment have no access to resources or information to assist them."

Out of an estimated Lebanese population of 4.5 million, an estimated 10 percent have disabilities, according to a 1990 UNDP survey.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Disabled remain marginalised, study finds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Disabled people in Lebanon continue to be marginalised in terms of education and employment, according to a new report released on Saturday. The study, entitled "Disability and Inclusion in Lebanon," was released by a grouping of NGOs devoted to issues concerning the disabled.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
(Beirut) - Lebanon's public education system discriminates against children with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Children with disabilities are often denied admission to schools because of their disability. And for those who manage to enroll, most schools do not take reasonable steps to provide them with a quality education. Instead, many children with disabilities in Lebanon attend institutions, which are not mandated to provide an education, or receive no education at all.

The 75-page report, "'I Would Like to Go to School': Barriers to Education for Children with Disabilities in Lebanon," finds that although Lebanese law bars schools from discriminating against children with disabilities, public and private schools exclude many children with disabilities. For those allowed to enroll, schools often lack reasonable accommodations, such as modifications to the classroom environment and curricula, or teaching methods to address children's needs. Schools also require the families of children with disabilities to pay extra fees and expenses that in effect are discriminatory.

"Discriminatory admissions practices are robbing Lebanese children with disabilities of an education," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Without any real option to get a quality inclusive education, thousands of children with disabilities are being left behind."

Top photos, bottom left photo: © 2017 Amanda Bailly for Human Rights Watch. Bottom center and right photos: © 2017 Sam Koplewicz for Human Rights Watch

Under both Lebanese and international law, all children should have access to a quality education without discrimination. Lebanon's Law No. 220, passed in 2000, guarantees everyone with a disability the right to education and other services, but it is not being put into practice, Human Rights Watch found. The educational path of children with disabilities in Lebanon is strewn with logistical, social, and economic pitfalls that mean they often face a compromised school experience - if they can enroll at all.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 200 children with disabilities and their families, government officials, disability rights experts, and education staff, and visited 11 public and private schools, 17 institutions, and 6 service providers.

Families said school officials gave various, sometimes brutal, reasons for denying their children admission. "While exclusion might not be a policy, it has become the custom," said one disability rights expert.

Few schools in Lebanon are physically accessible and the government does little to provide accommodations children may need to succeed. Human Rights Watch found in nearly all cases that teachers and school administrators lacked training in inclusive education and that schools lacked funding to provide sufficient staff, in particular aides who can provide direct support to one or more children. Inclusive education involves children with disabilities studying in their community schools with reasonable support for academic and other forms of achievement.

"We are trying to do the best we can," one teacher said. "We don't have resources or the tools we need."

For children who are not able to enroll in schools, 103 specialized institutions funded by the Social Affairs Ministry serve as the alternative for children with disabilities. Yet the educational resources at many of these institutions are of poor quality. And a lack of monitoring, poor evaluation mechanisms, and a dearth of appropriate resources raise serious concerns about whether these institutions fulfill children's right to an education.

Conditions in some of the institutions are problematic, Human Rights Watch found. At two residential institutions visited, there was no separation between children and unrelated adult residents, providing inadequate privacy and supervision. In many cases, distance and the cost of transportation means that many children end up sleeping at institutions, effectively separating them from their families and communities for significant amounts of time.

There is no clear data on the total number of children with disabilities in Lebanon nor on how many are in school. Of the 8,558 Lebanese ages 5 to 14 registered with the Social Affairs Ministry as children with disabilities, 3,806 are in government-funded institutions, with a few others spread among public and private schools.

However other data raise concerns that tens of thousands of Lebanese children with disabilities may be excluded from Lebanon's official disability registration. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization, and World Bank estimate that 5 percent of people under age 14 has a disability, which would put a conservative estimate of the number of Lebanese children ages 5 to 14 with a disability at 40,000.

In recent years, the Lebanese government has taken steps in the right direction. The Education Ministry has made some efforts to include children with learning disabilities in public schools. It is planning a 2018 pilot program under which 30 public schools will include children with learning disabilities and 6 will enroll children with visual, hearing, physical, and moderate intellectual disabilities.

The right to an education applies to all children, including those with disabilities. As a state party to the Conventions on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Lebanon is obligated to provide free compulsory primary education and access to secondary education without discrimination to all children. Inclusive education benefits all students, not only students with disabilities. A system that meets the diverse needs of all students benefits all learners and is a means to achieve high-quality education and can promote a more inclusive society.

The obstacles that children with disabilities face are not unique to Lebanon. The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that more than one-third of the 121 million children at the primary and lower-secondary level who are out of school worldwide are children with disabilities.

The Lebanese government should implement and enforce existing disability rights legislation, Human Rights Watch said. The Education Ministry should provide inclusive education in all its schools in a way that achieves maximum inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream public and private schools, including by adapting school curricula and hiring experienced personnel. The Social Affairs Ministry should create and implement a time-bound action plan for deinstitutionalization.

"Eighteen years after Lebanon passed a law ensuring children with disabilities could get an education, almost nothing has been done to make this a reality," Fakih said. "Lebanon should urgently end its dependence on institutions, and ensure that children with disabilities can get a quality education in a classroom alongside their peers."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lebanon: Schools Discriminate Against Children with Disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
(Beirut) - Lebanon's public education system discriminates against children with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Children with disabilities are often denied admission to schools because of their disability. And for those who manage to enroll, most schools do not take reasonable steps to provide them with a quality education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Under the law, all Lebanese children should have access to education free from discrimination. Lebanon's Law 220 of 2000 grants persons with disabilities the right to education, health, and other basic rights. It set up a committee dedicated to optimizing conditions for children registered as having a disability to participate in all classes and tests.

In reality, the educational path of children with disabilities in Lebanon is strewn with logistical, social, and economic pitfalls that mean they often face a compromised school experience-if they can enroll at all.

Basmah, a 9-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, puts on her own backpack every day as she gets in the car to accompany her siblings to school-but despite her enthusiasm, no school has accepted her because of her disability. Human Rights Watch interviewed 33 children or their families, who said they were excluded from public school in Lebanon on account of disability, in what amounts to discrimination against them. Of these, 23 school-age children with disabilities in Beirut and its suburbs, Hermel, Akkar, Nabatieh, and the Chouf districts, were not enrolled in any educational program.

In the cases Human Rights Watch investigated, most families said children with disabilities were excluded from public schools due to discriminatory admission policies, lack of reasonable accommodations, a shortage of sufficiently trained staff, lack of inclusive curricula (including no individualized education programs), and discriminatory fees and expenses that further marginalize children with disabilities from poor families.

There is no clear data on the total number of children with disabilities in Lebanon or on how many children with disabilities are in school. According to Rights and Access, the government agency charged with registering persons with disabilities, there are currently 8,558 children registered with a disability aged between 5 and 14 (the age of compulsory education in Lebanon). Of these, 3,806 are in government-funded institutions, with some others spread among public and private schools. But many of those registered do not attend any type of educational facility. Furthermore, these figures are low, given that the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank estimate that at least 5 percent of children below the age of 14 have a disability. Based on this statistic, a conservative estimate is that at least 45,000 children ages 5 to 14 in Lebanon have a disability. This discrepancy raises concerns that tens of thousands of Lebanese children with disabilities are not registered as such and many of these may not have access to education.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which Lebanon ratified in 1991, children with disabilities have the right to education, training, health care, and rehabilitative services. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Lebanon has signed but not ratified, promotes "the goal of full inclusion" while considering "the best interests of the child." Law 220 mirrors this principle in requiring the best interest of the learner when it comes to inclusive versus special education.

As detailed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, inclusive education has been acknowledged as the most appropriate means for governments to guarantee universality and nondiscrimination in the right to education. Inclusive education is the practice of educating students with disabilities in mainstream schools with the provision of supplementary aids and services where necessary to allow children to achieve their full potential. It involves the recognition of a need to transform the cultures, policies, and practices in schools to accommodate the differing needs of individual students and an obligation to remove barriers that impede that possibility.
Report by the Human Rights Watch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Barriers to Education for Children with Disabilities in Lebanon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Under the law, all Lebanese children should have access to education free from discrimination. Lebanon's Law 220 of 2000 grants persons with disabilities the right to education, health, and other basic rights. It set up a committee dedicated to optimizing conditions for children registered as having a disability to participate in all classes and tests.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Akin to the domestic law, the international convention - signed by the Lebanese state in 2007 - emphasizes the right to education "without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity."

The Lebanese Civil Society - such as LPHU, the Youth Association of the Blind, the Lebanese Down Syndrome Association and other NGOs - critiques the implementation of this right, in its report presented to the UN and published in the UPR.

The state "still adopts the policy of isolating people with disabilities," as only one percent of the disabled youth is enrolled in regular official schools.

Civil society thus urges the state to "allocate [the needed] budget to achieve an inclusive educational system," and hence harmonize the reality with the provisions of the domestic law and international convention.
The political dimension
The inadequate laws' application lies within the Lebanese political system itself. Both former Prime Ministers Saad El Hariri and Najib Mikati held the implementation decree of the rights of disabled people and the ratification of the international convention as a priority in their agendas.

After the dissolution of the two governments, the ministerial statement of Tammam Salam's temporary government disregarded the topic of disabled people's rights. Procedures to implement relevant laws seemed to have been dismissed.

Moreover, in Mikati's government, Wael Bou Faour, Ali Hasan Khalil and Muhamad Al Safadi were respectively holding the ministries of Social Affairs, Health and Finance.

Back then, they had a clear framework and an inclusive plan to implement related laws and ensure the rights of disabled people. In the subsequent government, the three ministers switched among these three ministries. Yet, none of them raised the case of the rights of people with disabilities again.
The State's report
As for the State's position, it confirmed in a report presented to the United Nations in October 2015 that, "persons with disabilities enjoy 100 percent medical coverage." It also specified that it had "announced measures in 2011 aimed at admitting persons with disabilities to employment contests in the public sector."

The official authorities have nonetheless acknowledged in this report that "their efforts remain insufficient and have not yet lived up to the hopes and aspirations invested in them."
Recommendations
Abdel Samad and Raef both provided similar plausible recommendations to reinforce the application of the existing laws. The Lebanese State ought to ratify the International Convention and thus adapt the domestic law to international guidelines.

Moreover, it should issue implementation decrees to regulate the application of law 220.

Hence, only when theoretical laws are effectively applied, will disabled people benefit from their rights. Only then will Rammal and thousands of others feel equally integrated and fully empowered.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Disabled people deprived from their rights in Lebanon: The inadequate implementation of a promising law

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Akin to the domestic law, the international convention - signed by the Lebanese state in 2007 - emphasizes the right to education "without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity."