Prince Mired, German minister discuss development cooperation for persons with disabilities

AMMAN — HH Prince Mired, lord chamberlain and president of the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (HCD), has met at HCD’s headquarters with federal minister for economic Cooperation and development of Germany, Svenja Schulze, and a number of members of the German parliament, with the aim of exchanging views with the government on the continued development cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The meeting with HCD is part of an official visit by Schulze to Jordan, accompanied by a number of members of the German Parliament, to review a number of projects funded by BMZ.

In his welcoming remarks, Prince Mired spoke of the disability movement in Jordan, stressing that Jordan was one of the first countries in the region to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), as well as the tangible development achieved by the Kingdom in the field of promoting the rights of persons with disabilities subsequent to the issuance of the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities No. 20 for the Year 2017.

The Prince stressed that, despite the progress Jordan has made in the field of the rights of persons with disabilities, Jordan still faces many challenges that require concerted efforts to confront them, especially in the field of education, the right to work, accessible tourism, political participation and other files.

Prince Mired also highlighted the work being done on the Global Disability Summit (GDS) that will be held in April 2025, which will be hosted by Germany, Jordan, and the International Disability Alliance. He added that the Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany’s hosting of the GDS 2025 comes with the aim of alerting world leaders to the large gap, between developing countries and developed countries in the field of the rights of persons with disabilities.

For her part, Schulze praised the important role played by HCD, and stressed that Jordan is considered one of the leading countries in the field of the rights of persons with disabilities in the region. She also stressed the importance of the GDS in focusing on a comprehensive human rights-based approach in dealing with disability issues, not the charity based model.

For his part HCD Secretary-General Muhannad Alazzeh presented the most important provisions of the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, stressing that the law placed Jordan at the forefront of countries that began translating the provisions of the CRPD into legislative and institutional practices that reflect the political will to effectively change the reality of persons with disabilities for the better, and that this law is the first modern anti-discrimination law in the region; a law that guarantees the full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of their freedoms and rights on an equal basis with others.