Acknowledgements

These paper proceedings have been collected as part of the efforts of the “Arab-EU Research Network on Disability” founded by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the Ministry for Inclusion, Voluntary Organisations and Consumer Rights of the Government of Malta and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities to enhance the inclusion of persons with disabilities in Europe and the Arab region.

The proceedings would not have been possible without the valuable contributions of the conference peer-review committee consisting of: Arlene S. Kanter, Professor of Law at Syracuse University; Alistair Saviour De Gaetano, Administrator at the Directorate for Disability Issues (ODI) at the Ministry for Inclusion, Voluntary Organisations and Consumer Rights in Malta; Claire Azzopardi Lane, Head of the Disability Studies Department at the University of Malta; Anne-Marie Callus, Associate Professor at the University of Malta; Heba Kotb, Associate Professor of Practice at the American University in Cairo; Tarek El-Nabulsi, Director of the Development and Social Policies Department at the League of Arab States; Nawaf Kabbara, President of the Arab Organization for Persons with Disabilities; Mohamad Loutfy, Co-founder of the Arab Forum for Persons with Disabilities; Ima Placencia, Senior Expert in the Disability and Inclusion Unit of the European Commission; and Samantha Pace Gasan, Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability at the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) in Malta.

Credit also goes to the disability team in the Gender Justice, Population and Inclusive Development Cluster of ESCWA for coordinating the collection, review and dissemination of these proceedings. The Cluster is led by Mehrinaz El Awady, and the team is comprised of Fathia Abdel Fadil, Alaa Sebeh, Sumaya Almajthoob, Nadine Chalak, Iman Bakkar, Lana El Skafi, Karen Sweid, Cristina Al Armani, and Nizar El Kotob.

We would like to thank the Documents Control Unit (DCU) in the Conference Management Section (CMS) of ESCWA for their valuable support with the editing, translation and design of these proceedings.

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States.