Kurdish refugee addresses UN on need to support Syrians with disabilities
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Nujeen Mustafa, a 20-year-old Syrian Kurd who escaped her besieged hometown of Kobani in 2015, addressed the UN Security Council on Wednesday, at the UK’s request, on the need to support Syrians with disabilities.
“We cannot wait. You need to address the needs of people with disabilities. This is not charity. This is our right,” Mustafa told attendees.
“In Syria, I didn’t have a wheelchair, so I had to be carried around by my siblings. But many people with disabilities cannot depend on their families to help them reach safety – often because their family members have been killed or have already left.”
Mustafa is the first person with a disability to formally brief the Security Council, and one of very few Syrians given such an opportunity since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
Last year, she met with the Kurdistan’s Region’s Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani, in Erbil.
“Today, at the UK’s request, Nujeen Mustafa briefed UNSC. Her amazing story highlights the impact of war on people with disabilities. We are still not seeing full humanitarian access in Syria,” UK Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Karen Pierce, tweeted.
“No-one should be excluded from humanitarian assistance, deliberately or inadvertently.”
As war broke out, Mustafa, at the age of 16, was forced to flee, first to her native Kobani and eventually Turkey. Since then, she has traveled the world to advocate for governments and UN agencies to include people with disabilities in their humanitarian response.
? Happening now: #UNSC meeting on #Syria with briefing by ASG @UschiMuller & a firsthand account of the humanitarian situation by @NujeenMustafa, a Syrian refugee living with a disability in Germany.
— German Mission to UN (@GermanyUN) April 24, 2019
?️ Follow the livestream: https://t.co/PAK3O2S2r4 #GERinUNSC pic.twitter.com/B6R3HcOJUF
She is currently studying in Germany and is the recipient of Human Rights Watch’s 2019 Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism.
Nujeen’s story has been told in a book co-authored by award-winning journalist, Christina Lamb, The Girl From Aleppo.
According to human rights monitor Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Security Council should urgently act to improve the protection of people with disabilities in armed conflict.
“The UN Security Council has a duty to protect all civilians in armed conflict, including people with disabilities,” said Shantha Rau Barriga, disability rights director at HRW.
“Nujeen Mustafa’s briefing to the Security Council should prompt council members, the UN leadership, and all UN member states to ensure that their humanitarian commitment to ‘Leave no one behind’ is not just rhetoric.”
“This Security Council briefing is an important step in recognizing the unique and disproportionate impact of conflict on persons with disabilities,” said Vladimir Cuk, executive director of the International Disability Alliance.
“Close consultation with, and active involvement of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in humanitarian response is critical to address their situation on the ground.”
Editing by Nadia Riva