Today marked the inaugural meeting of the Interagency Coordination Committee for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, established on the initiative of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

The Head of Government, in his address to the participants of the event, pointed out ensuring equal opportunities for all and bettering the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities is one of the Government’s top priorities.

“Every person has inherent abilities, and their realization ensures their decent lives and also empowers society, as clearly evidenced by the many achievements of persons with disabilities engaged in science, arts, sports, and every area of social life. Consequently, our Constitution decrees that “the state shall create special conditions for the realization of the rights and interests of persons with disabilities.” Thus, ensuring equal opportunities for all and bettering the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities is one of the Government’s top priorities. We have already taken numerous important steps in this direction. In 2014, we ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In doing that, we recognized the international standards of protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, on one hand, and assumed relevant obligations on both national and international levels, on the others,” PM underscored.

According to Irakli Garibashvili, besides legislative amendments, social security programs are also strengthened, which is especially important to the country’s population.

“The budget for social rehabilitation and childcare is growing every year, to make up 37.4 million GEL last year and 40 million GEL this year, and expected to reach 52 million GEL next year. This means enhanced geographic access to social services and greater financing for various existing and new services. We will continue coordinated work to address existing challenges. In this process, the creation of the Interagency Coordination Committee for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on our decision this year is especially important.

We will further step up our work toward protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. This is one of our main duties, and the creation of the Coordination Committee and its first meeting today serve this very purpose. On behalf of the Government and my own, I declare full support and pledge that we will do everything to ensure that even more attention is paid to promoting and developing this issue. I wish success to the committee and its today’s meeting, and once again thank you for attending,” the Head of Government emphasized.