ICRC, Afghanistan: A changed perspective to disability helps her inspire others, 3 August 2022
“The ICRC's physical rehabilitation programme, which was one of our first activities in the country, began in Kabul almost 35 years ago. Now, there are a total of seven ICRC-run physical rehabilitation centres – in Kabul, Gulbahar, Herat, Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif, Faizabad and Lashkar Gah.”
UNOCHR, Oral update on Afghanistan Statement by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 15 June 2022
“Access to basic services including healthcare is also diminishing. According to the World Health Organization, some 18.1 million people are in need of health services, including 3.19 million children under five. Compounding all of this is the glaring absence of functioning national mechanisms to monitor human rights violations, severely limiting the ability to provide basic protection for the Afghan people, especially vulnerable groups such as children, people with disabilities, internally displaced people, minorities, and LGBTQI communities.”
US DOS, 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Afghanistan, 12 April 2022
“Persons with disabilities faced increased barriers to reproductive health resources as a result of decreased access to transportation, education, and social support. […] Persons with disabilities could not access education, health services, public buildings, and transportation on an equal basis with others. Persons with disabilities faced barriers such as limited access to educational opportunities, inability to access government buildings, difficulty in acquiring government identification required for many government services and voting, lack of economic opportunities, and social exclusion due to stigma. […] The World Institute on Disability (WID) estimated that 90 percent of persons with disabilities were unemployed as a result of entrenched social biases and faced barriers to accessing public services including health and education. According to WID, persons with disabilities also faced barriers to accessing education, transportation, and health care. Lack of security remained a problem for disability programs throughout the year. Insecurity in remote areas, where a disproportionate number of persons with disabilities lived, precluded delivery of assistance in some cases. Most buildings remained inaccessible to persons with disabilities, prohibiting many from benefitting from education, health care, and other services.”