'Human and Social Development': Kuwait Has Taken Important Steps in Strengthening the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Kuwait's participation in the UNESCO forum to promote the rights of persons with disabilities.
Translated by Qiyas from الجريدة — Original source
This came in a conversation conducted by KUNA with Al-Khald, today, on the occasion of her participation in the fifth edition of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination, hosted by the Dutch city of The Hague on October 29 and 30, 2026.
Al-Khald clarified that her participation was part of a dialogue session titled “Nothing About Us Without Us: Advancing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” in her capacity as the sole Arab and Gulf speaker alongside Myong Kim, Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in coordination with UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education in Arab States (RBEC) in Doha, and in the presence of Kuwait’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Abdulaziz Al-Jarallah, and his accompanying delegation.
She stressed the importance of translating international treaties and legislation concerning the rights of persons with disabilities into actual practices that enhance their integration into society and the labor market, and ensure their effective participation on an equal footing with others.
Al-Khald called for the inclusion of a recognition indicator among internationally adopted human rights indicators, to help measure the actual level of participation of persons with disabilities from their perspective and strengthen accountability regarding the implementation of international commitments, affirming the association’s readiness to cooperate with international partners to test and apply the scale.
She added that the association presented during the session its experience in rehabilitating persons with intellectual disabilities and integrating them into the labor market through the “Partners for Their Employment” initiative, which it has been implementing since 2018, involving 481 individuals, of whom 231 secured employment opportunities, with a job retention rate of 97.8 percent.
She also met with Myong Kim, discussing the “Dignity, Recognition, and Empowerment” scale and the association’s experience in integrating persons with disabilities into the labor market, as well as ways to leverage these experiences to develop human rights practices.
She further held discussions with Denise Carvalho, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO, on ways to enhance cooperation, exchange expertise, and disseminate successful Kuwaiti practices in vocational rehabilitation and employment integration for persons with disabilities at the international level.
