Saying their Support Has the Priority over some Obligations, Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim Calls on the Political and Parliamentary Blocs to Enact a Law that Regulates the Affairs of the Persons with Disabilities
Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, announced a national project for the persons with disabilities called “Empowerment”, explaining that the empowerment, the availability of opportunities, the integration and the participation are the basic foundations of a global objective vision through which practical, plausible solutions can be provided to the disabled and the community may be pushed to be more aware of the importance of acting in solidarity and cooperation with it, saying the cultural and educational empowerment comes in the first place, then the financial and medical empowerment follows, and finally there is the practical empowerment. According to him, the basic educational policy must change and there must be special curricula and classed for the disabled children and a well-defined educational policy for this segment during all the school stages up to the academic years. It is also importance to set up ad-hoc institutes that deal with this big, key segment within the Iraqi community. His Eminence added that the correct and effective empowerment of the disabled people is so important because this way they will offer to themselves, to their communities and to their country the best services since unlike the others, they have the will and the capacity to survived. Moreover, he said that it is a sacred national and human duty to take care of the disabled people.
This came in the 3rd National Conference on the Persons with Disabilities held on Saturday, 28/2/2015 at the office of Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim in Baghdad in the presence of a number of officials and associations and civil society, human rights and UN organizations, as well as to ambassadors of some countries in Iraq.
In his speech, Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim addressed the political and parliamentary blocs calling on them to enact a law that regulates the affairs of the people with disabilities, because albeit the hard difficulties and challenges the country has been facing, the support and the empowerment of this segment will have the priority over other obligations. According to him, everyone is responsible for providing high-tech medical institutions and for following the latest scientific data on how to deal with and treat the people with disabilities, urging the ministry of transport to offer facilities and remunerative discounts in the means of transportation such as airplanes, trains and public commuting for the people with disabilities.
Politically, Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim said all Iraqis must overcome the problems and differences, deal with the events with objectivity and leave emotions aside in their political relationships, calling on everyone to meet halfway because taking such step does not mean to compromise or to be weak and the history remembers those who made great achievements for their countries and their peoples, adopted the meeting-halfway policy when no one had did and made great historical compromises that turned to be beneficial to everyone. While since its inception, such policy has been faced with objections and accusations of treason, it offered realistic solutions that everyone stuck to and defended later when its huge benefits became clear. He added that Iraqis today have only two choices: the State or the chaos. The zealous Iraqi will choose the State, while terrorists and takfiris will choose the chaos, calling on the politicians and those in charge of the public affairs in the country to be armed with will and patience.
