Jeddah: The international community is commemorating the International Day of Disabled Persons today, an annual event observed on 3 December since 1992, pursuant to a United Nations resolution aimed at intensifying efforts to integrate disabled persons into the society, to understand their issues, and to raise societal awareness about those issues.

On this occasion, the OIC Secretary-General, H. E. Mr Hiseein Brahim Taha, called on Member States, relevant OIC institutions, and international and non-governmental organizations to intensify their efforts to achieve social justice for disabled persons by implementing resolutions and policies adopted in this regard and coming up with programs to support disabled persons and strengthen awareness activities to ease their integration into their societies.

The OIC ministerial conference on social development held in the Arab Republic of Egypt in June 2023 adopted resolutions supporting disabled persons. These resolutions encouraged Member States to exchange experiences on integrating and rehabilitating disabled persons in the Member States.

The Secretary-General highlighted the difficult humanitarian situation being experienced by the Palestinian people in general and the disabled ones among them, in particular, arising from the killing of innocent children, women, elderly, disabled, and youth and also repression, violence, destruction of health, cultural, sport and services infrastructure.