A UN rights official praised Jordan on Thursday for passing recent laws promoting the rights of disabled people but said the country lagged behind when it came to implementation.
Gerard Quinn, UN special rapporteur on the rights of people with disabilities, said at the conclusion of a 10-day visit to Jordan that disabled people are frequently excluded from the country’s education system and job market.
“Gaps in social protection and family support mechanisms perpetuate cycles of poverty and exclusion,” Mr Quinn told reporters in Amman.
In 2017, Jordan passed the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which explicitly banned discrimination in the workforce and other fields.
A constitutional amendment this year reinforced those bans.
Mr Quinn cautioned that even “a good law” aiming to promote the cause of disabled people will not take hold unless society focuses on “rights, not charity”.
He said that, with a few exceptions, “stigma and bias” keep disabled people in Jordan “at home, out of school and unemployed and isolated from their communities”.
“Inclusive education is prioritised … in law and policy,” he said. “However, I am concerned that progress towards a fully inclusive education system is at an early stage.”
Mr Quinn reports to UN Human Rights Council and part of his job is to gather information on breaches of the rights of people with disabilities.
He said the latest Jordanian official data at his disposal show that 79 per cent of disabled Jordanians in 2015 received no education.
“Those who are in school are often in segregated schools or in regular schools without the support they require to succeed,” he said.
Including disabled people in education is a “key issue” because they can contribute to improving the economy, he said.
The conditions, he said, are more acute among the hundreds of thousands of mostly Arab refugees in Jordan, who are not covered by many protection laws.
He called for “systemic investment” to educate disabled people in the kingdom, whether they hold Jordanian citizenship or not.
“Unless those 79 per cent of kids are not included in the education system, they will not be engineers and the IT workers of future,” he said.
“I would also invest to raise the capacity of disabled people to participate in government, not just to articulate grievance but to come forward with blueprint for change.”
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Key developments in maritime dispute
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
The years Ramadan fell in May
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Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
RESULTS
6.30pm: Handicap (rated 95-108) US$125,000 2000m (Dirt).
Winner: Don’t Give Up, Gerald Mosse (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer).
7.05pm: Handicap (95 ) $160,000 2810m (Turf).
Winner: Los Barbados, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.
7.40pm: Handicap (80-89) $60,000 1600m (D).
Winner: Claim The Roses, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.15pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (Div-1) Conditions $100,000 1,400m (D)
Winner: Gold Town, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
8.50pm: Cape Verdi Group 2 $200,000 1600m (T).
Winner: Promising Run, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
9.25pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Conditions $100,000 1,400m (D).
Winner: El Chapo, Luke Morris, Fawzi Nass.
