The conference that took place on 16-17 November 2015, at the Crown Plaza Hotel, in the heart of Beirut city, gathered major stakeholders from civil society, ministries of Education and Higher Education, social affairs and Communication, people with disabilities and their families in addition to, educators working in educational inclusion and accessibility of people with disabilities in Lebanon.

The conference objectives included:

• Highlighting the current educational status for people with disabilities in Lebanon;
• Discussing the plan of the Centre of Educational Research and Development and related programmes of the Ministry of Education with the aim to set a comprehensive plan to merge the people with disabilities in schools;
• Aspiring to endorse a national plan for educational inclusion;
• Discussing UNESCO “Model policy for information and communication technology (ICT) in education for people with disabilities”.

In his opening speech, Dr. Nawaf Kabara, NARD president, stated that "disabled students in Lebanon face crucial barriers in terms of education". "No less than 30% or 72 million child around the globe do not attend schools due to disability" said Dr. Nawaf, adding that"95% of the disabled youth are eliminated by the educational systems in the Middle East and North Africa to access educational institutes". NARD president expressed the urgent need to develop and enhance the role of the people with disabilities in the Lebanese society. He also insisted on the right of students with disabilities to choose between receiving education from merged schools or special institutes, concluding his speech with calls to change the current discouraging situation that disabled students are facing in Lebanon.

Dr. Hamad Al- Hammami, Director of UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States, considered that “it is our responsibility now more than ever to rethink our educational systems and curricula, to be violence free, and raise our students as human beings disregarding color, gender, race, or religion". Dr. Al-Hammami stated that “globally, more than one billion, including 93 million child, are living with a form of disability”. "Disabled individuals experience inequity during their daily life, and drastically have less chances of receiving quality education provided in an inclusive environment”. “Our statistics point that 90% of disabled children in under developed countries do not attend schools. Taking this in hand, UNESCO is working with the member states and through its four sectors to create a nursing, suitable and supportive setting to the people with disabilities”.

Dr. Al-Hammami praised “this collaboration between UNESCO and NARD in Lebanon, since it highlights the importance of the right to education and knowledge for people with disabilities, and especially the importance of setting inclusive plans and policies and putting them in practice”.

Nada Matraji, an NGO representative active in this field, ensured that "optimism is a must" and that further coordination and teamwork are essential to overcome the challenges ahead. "While schools' rehabilitation and constructional adjustments are needed to improve accessibility for disabled students, more legislations are required on the longer term to guarantee full inclusion and equity".

People with disabilities face specific challenges in the pursuit of their right to education resulting in a reduced access to mainstream education, specific provisions guarantee their right to education and encourage countries to adopt an approach that is inclusive to all, including those with disabilities.

UNESCO takes a leading role in the development and enhancing the role of people with disabilities, focusing on the importance of education to all and emerging the people with disabilities in the society to improve their chances of receiving fair education. In particular, believing in the important role of ICT and how it is changing people’s lives, UNESCO launched at the global level, a “Model policy for ICT in Education for people with disabilities”. This model was presented by Mr. George Awad, programme officer at UNESCO Beirut with the different steps on how Lebanon can benefit from the model to convert it to its own national policy. In addition, Awad showed also the importance of engaging all national stakeholders in this exercise, from government, to civil society and academia and most importantly people with disabilities and their families.

Additionally, UNESCO supports various international Human Rights Treaties and Conventions that uphold the right to education of all persons, including Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1946), the Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006).

This event was co-sponsored by the National Collaboration Fund financed by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.