United nations crc

VI. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE

A. Disabled children

159. The Rights of the Child Act devotes an entire chapter (chapter III), entitled “The welfare and rehabilitation of disabled children”, to this subject. Article 115 stipulates that: “The State shall guarantee to a mentally or physically disabled child the right to enjoy a decent life, as well as social, health and psychological care that develops his self-reliance and facilitates his integration into society.”

160. Article 116 of the above Act provides that: “The disabled child shall have the right to rehabilitation through the provision of social, psychological, medical, educational and vocational services. The State must provide the remedial equipment and services needed for the rehabilitation of children free of charge.”

161. Article 123 of the Act stipulates that: “The Higher Council for Maternal and Child Welfare shall, in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, disseminate information on issues relating to disabled children through the various media in order to increase social awareness of the rights, needs and abilities of such children in different fields and of their equality with other children.”

162. Under the Act, the Government is also required to establish institutes, centres and institutions for the rehabilitation of disabled children, provide remedial equipment and rehabilitation services free of charge and admit such children to basic education schools in accordance with their abilities and aptitudes with a view to harnessing those abilities to make them eligible for gainful employment.

163. Measures adopted to that end: The National Committee for the Welfare of Disabled Persons was established and mandated, pursuant to Republican Decree No. 5 of 1991, to perform the following tasks:

• 
  Elaborate strategies and policies for the welfare and rehabilitation of persons with special needs;
  
• 
  Put into practice the policy of social integration and effective participation in development.
  

164. A disabled welfare fund was established under Republican Decree No. 6 of 1991, as amended by Act No. 2 of 2002, known as the Disabled Welfare Fund Act. The Disabled Welfare and Rehabilitation Act No. 16 of 1999 was promulgated.

165. Council of Ministers Decree No. 284 of 2002 concerning the Implementing Regulations of the above Act was promulgated.

166. Ministry of Education Decree No. 407 of 1999 was promulgated, giving disabled persons the right of admission to mainstream education. In the education sector, the Department of Comprehensive Education was established, with branches in all governorates. In conjunction with non-governmental organizations, efforts were made to develop the school curriculum in Braille and large print. These efforts, however, are still far from meeting the requirements of all special needs children.

167. Child and maternal immunization campaigns were run, achieving extremely positive results in that poliomyelitis, which causes motor disability, was eradicated from Yemen and Yemen was removed from the epidemic map of countries for poliomyelitis. Similar results were also achieved in combating congenital tetanus, as well as measles, which causes many deaths among the under-fives and newborn infants.

168. The audio-visual media began to play an active awareness-raising role in order to reduce the incidence of disability caused by misguided practices in traditional methods of treatment.

169. The Population Action Programme (2001-2005) makes provision for the establishment of new centres, the improvement of existing training centres, access to educational aids and the organization of workshops for the rehabilitation of disabled persons. Public, private and educational service institutions are encouraged to work on integrating the disabled into their activities and efforts to raise cultural and educational awareness within the community have been intensified with a view to ensuring that the needs of disabled persons are accommodated and understood and that disabled persons are treated as members of society.

170. The Government has devoted attention to the establishment of social welfare homes for this category and to the provision of support for a number of the health, educational and vocational associations working in this field:

Table 6

Name of home	Number of beneficiaries
1. Centre for the Blind - San’a	135
2. Centre for the Blind - Aden	61
3. Centre for the Blind - Hadramawt	101
4. Special Needs Centre - San’a	323
5. Special Needs Centre - Aden	85
Total	705

171. Non-governmental organizations are encouraged to channel resources and activities into rehabilitation services for the genuine integration of disabled persons. In that connection, the Government, in cooperation with the Swedish organization Rädda Barnen, established a community-based rehabilitation (CBR) project as an action strategy aimed at providing support and training for disabled children and their families in the context of the local community.

172. The main achievements of the project were as follows:

• 
  It produced statistics on the amount and types of disability in the target regions by means of a comprehensive field survey;
  
• 
  It elaborated a strategy for comprehensive education in the Republic of Yemen, which began with a pilot project for comprehensive education in 15 schools, illustrated in the following table: