Adalah Call on International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Israeli Government Must Address Gross Inequalities in Health and Educational Services for Arab Children with Special Needs

International Day of Persons with Disabilities has been observed annually on 3 December since 1992 in order to promote the full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for persons with disabilities. The main theme of 2012 is “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all”.

In a landmark achievement, on 13 December 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Countries that ratify the Convention commit to protect the rights of people with disabilities and to abolish laws and practices that discriminate against them (Article 4).  Israel ratified the Convention on 28 September 2012, thereby binding itself to the provisions therein.

While Israel’s ratification of the Convention is a positive move and highly welcome, on the ground many obstacles remain to the full enjoyment of the human rights of persons with disabilities, and in particular Arab citizens of Israel who have disabilities, including children. Inadequate state support for Arab children with disabilities has resulted in the discriminatory distribution of healthcare facilities; for example, only 10 of 70 units for therapeutic child development and 12 of 82 rehabilitative day care centers were located in Arab towns in 2011.

Long-standing discrimination against Arab children citizens of Israel with disabilities has resulted in a situation where twice as many Arab children suffer from severe disabilities as Jewish children in Israel. The problem is worse among the Arab Bedouin in the Naqab (Negev) area of southern Israel, where a chronic lack of adequate and accessible healthcare facilities has resulted in markedly elevated levels of functional disabilities and chronic illnesses. In one recent case, Adalah is demanding the cancellation of an Education Ministry decision to transfer 55 Arab Bedouin students in a special education program from the town of Kassifa located in the Naqab (Negev) desert to another school in the village Molda/Attrash, as the new school is located far from the students’ homes and does not offer the minimum necessary level of security and accessibility.

Adalah also recently submitted an NGO report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in which it detailed gaps in the provision of health, education and other services to Arab citizens of Israel, focusing on children. To read the report, click here.