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Dubai /Â WAM
More steps are being taken in Dubai to closely monitor laws and programmes designed to assure that Dubai and the UAE becomes a leading country in guaranteeing the rights of the disabled.
Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Higher Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, reiterated the UAE leadership’s commitment to monitor the implementation of all programmes constituting Dubai’s strategy for becoming one of the world’s most disabled-friendly cities by 2020.
“All the authorities in Dubai are responsible for taking care of, and integrating people with disabilities into society. Our duty is to guarantee that they have equal rights, just like all others in society. We should continue to work hard and intensify efforts in implementing the plans, strategies and joint initiatives to achieve this vision, according to a clearly-defined plan and in line with directives of the UAE leadership,” he said during a Commission meeting held at the offices of the General Secretariat of the Dubai Executive Council.
Sheikh Mansour further stressed the importance of implementing relevant programmes and projects in time, as part of the strategy.
The meeting covered the progress of a project to create a disabled-friendly environment, an assessment of infrastructure, buildings, facilities, means of transportation, an analysis of the current situation and shortcomings as well as efforts being made to issue a set of relevant standards for the emirate.
Based on principles of universal design, the project aims to transform infrastructures urban environment – including buildings, facilities, transportation, pavements, pedestrian crossings, roads, buses, trains and means of maritime transport- into disabled-friendly settings by the year 2020.
The Higher Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was formed in 2014 by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, to enact legislation and oversee the implementation of initiatives and develop a work plan
for to protect people with
disabilities.
This move was part of the “My Community… A City for Everyone”, launched in November 2013, seeks to transform Dubai into a disability-friendly city by 2020 through projects and initiatives that promote the participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities in the community, eliminating all obstacles that may block them from integration into society as capable members.