Ref: 48/2020Date: 03 December 2020
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) launched a new report on the conditions of persons with disabilities in the Gaza Strip in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is part of PCHR’s ongoing follow-up on persons with disabilities’ conditions, and its role in monitoring the realization of cultural, social and economic rights recognized in the international covenant and ensured by the Palestinian Disability Law No. 4 for 1999. The release of this report coincides with the International Day of Persons with Disabilties, which marks the 3rd of December of each year, as well as a movement led by persons with disabilities in Palestine demaning the government to provide them with free and comprehsive health insurance.
The report reviews the level of services provided to persons with disabilities and the challenges impeding them from enjoying their economic, social and cultural rights as well as their political and civil rights. Persons with disabilities conditions warrant examination as a vulnerable group in a largely fragile society as the Gaza Strip population continues to live under the 14-year-long Israeli closure, and now faces the new challenges brought in by the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent protective measures that hindered persons with disabilities’ access to basic services, including health and education and the cash and in-kind donations, as well as the suspension of Gaza Authority of Civil Affairs (GACA’s) work from 19 May to 22 November 2020 and its impact on the travel of patients with disabilities for treatment abroad.
The report also documents that 354 persons with disabilities were access to hospitals and 779 others were denied access to physiotherapy services; meanwhile, 729 persons with disabilities were unable to obtain assistive medical devices and 223 others could not receive wound dressing care services; and 79 persons with disabilities were denied surgeries either at Gaza hospitals or abroad. Furthermore, 526 persons with disabilities could not access occupational therapy services. The report also highlights the suffering of persons with disabilities kept in the quarantine centers due to poor serivces and inaccesseible facilities, in contrast with the standards recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report also addresses the suffering of persons with disabilities, including their inability to adapt with remote learning mainly because of their disability and the difficulty to reach their schools following the decision to resume at-school classes due to the compromised immune system among persons with disabilities with diseases. Moreover, the report sheds a light on persons with disabilities being cut off from cash and in-kind donations throughout the Covid-19 pandemic period as government institutions, private and international organizations operating in the Gaza Strip downsized their services to the public.
The report calls upon the competent government authorities and rehabilitation organizations to work together in order to ensure that all persons with disabilities enjoy their rights guaranteed by national and international laws. The report also emphasizes the need to engage persons with disabilities and the rehabilitation centers in the national plan to combat Covid-19.
It is noteworthy that the report will be published in English soon.
