The Minister of State for Administrative Reform, H.E.M. Ibrahim Shamseddine pledged to strive to include the issues relevant to the handicapped persons in the ministerial statement, as a part of the government’s program. He called upon the government to be a government of national unity and of action, and not a government of elections, and to be the government of the citizens, and not the government of the ministers. The minister stressed the importance for the government to embody the national unity among its members, but also between the citizens and their long-awaited government. He said that the government will be able to enhance the spirit of unity with the citizens should it be devoted to them, and should the ministers be devoted to the people.

The minister Ibrahim Shamseddine was speaking during the opening ceremony of a national conference held in the UNESCO Palace under the title “The Right of the Handicapped Person to Work: Between the Implementation of Law 220/2000 and the Commitment of the Stakeholders of the Civil Society”. The conference was organized by the Forum of the Handicapped in Northern Lebanon, within the project “A Model of the Strategies of the Implementation of the Primary Articles of Law 220/2000” of Afkar II program, financed by EU and managed by OMSAR. The minister was also representing the Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

The opening ceremony was attended by the representative of the Minister of Social Affairs and Head of the Department of the Handicapped Persons’ Affairs, Ms. Corine Azar, the representative of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Georges Bou Francis, the General Director of the Ministry of Labor, Mr. Abdallah Razzouk, the General Director of the National Institution of Employment, Mr. Abdel Ghani Chahine, the Head of the Employment Department in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Mr. Souhair Hallaoui, the representative of the General Director of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Georges Daoud, the representative of MP Strida Geagea, Mr. Fadi Souaid, the representative of General Achraf Rifi, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Kallas, the General Secretary of the Lebanese Chambers of Trade, Industry and Agriculture, Mr. Toufik Addaboussi, the representative of the private institutions’ sector, Mr. Elias Antoine, representatives of hospitals, directors of recruitment agencies and activists from the civil society.

After the Lebanese national anthem, the President of the Forum of the Handicapped, Mr. Nabil Abd welcomed the assembly. He underlined the sufferings of the handicapped persons, and praised the combat led by handicapped persons with a view of obtaining the issuance and adoption of law 220/2000 relevant to the handicapped persons. He underlined that only 5% of the above-mentioned law is implemented so far-eight years after it was passed-which made urgent the renewal of the combat to obtain its full implementation. He mentioned the national campaign launched by the forum in 2005-2006 within Afkar I program and explained the action plan “A Model of the Strategies of the Implementation of the Primary Articles of Law 220/2000 between 2007 and 2008” prepared by the forum for the implementation of the law through Afkar II program. He added that the conference targets all the sectors that might affect the creation of job opportunities to the handicapped persons who have practical, scientific and vocational skills, capacities and potentials, with a view of raising awareness among them, convincing them and cooperating with them in order to achieve and promote the employment of the handicapped persons. He also declared that a special website for the employment of the handicapped persons will be launched during the conference, where the active economic institutions are called to put their job advertisements and the handicapped persons to put their CVs. In conclusion, Mr. Abd launched the slogan “Together towards Institutions that believe in the Potential of the Society”.
As for the minister Shamseddine he described the law 220 as good, organized and clear, noting that it includes incentives and deadlines, as well as obstacles and sanctions. He noted however that its implementation requires the existence of a constitutional State. He considered that the practical and fair implementation of the law also requires a close and a serious follow-up by the administrations concerned by the implementation of the laws related to private and public sectors. He underlined the critical role of the national body for the handicapped persons’ affairs in following-up and monitoring the work of the administrations, private and public institutions and municipalities in terms of commitment to the full implementation of the law. He urged the stakeholders to have recourse to the law that fully legitimates the accountability, stressing that the right of the Lebanese handicapped citizens is a permanent right to be claimed loudly. He suggested issuing what he called the “white report”, a periodic list presented by the national body or the Department of Handicapped Persons’ Affairs of the Ministry of Social Affairs that includes the names of the private and public institutions that are implementing law 220. He considered that such a measure can motivate some institutions and disclose some others that will be then considered as violators of the law.