The third webinar of the webinar series titled ‘‘Civil society during and after the pandemic’’ was held on 20 May 2020. The webinar featured Hakan Özgül and İdil Seda Ak from the Association of Social Rights and Research (TOHAD) who discussed the challenges faced by persons with disabilities and civil society organizations that work on the rights of persons with disabilities during the pandemic as well as proposed solutions.

Referring to a recent report by the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Hakan Özgül said that no country was fully prepared for such a crisis and that persons with disabilities were among the worst hit groups during the pandemic.

Özgül added that persons with disabilities experienced particular problems in access to healthcare and that their routine treatment programs were disrupted while also pointing to a lack of progress on this issue. 

İdil Seda Ak placed an emphasis on the issue of accessibility in education while expressing that it was absolutely necessary to further improve the EBA (Education Information Network) and highlighting that persons with hearing loss experience particular disadvantages in accessing programs such as the EBA. 

Both speakers said that the challenges faced in the area of rights of persons with disabilities are not limited to times of pandemic but that the issues that already existed before the pandemic were exacerbated by the current situation. The speakers pointed to a need to have the central government develop a road map in collaboration with civil society organizations and that such collaboration is the only way forward for sustainable solutions to achieve the rights of persons with disabilities.

Özgül and Ak stressed the concept of on-site service delivery and stated that getting tested at hospitals was not an appropriate service delivery method for persons with disabilities and that such services needed to be scaled up for persons with disabilities through mukhtars or district municipalities.

The Social Rights and Research Association (TOHAD) also runs the Disability Rights Monitoring and Reporting Project with the support of the Hrant Dink Foundation Grant Program. You can find other non-governmental organizations and projects in the grant program here.

The video is only available in Turkish and Armenian language.

This project is funded by the European Union.