What is Disability?

Persons with disabilities include those with long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments. These impairments are sometimes visible to others, and other times hidden. Environmental barriers prevent persons with disabilities from performing day-to-day activities and fully participating in society. Accordingly, policy interventions should focus on resolving these barriers to facilitate the participation and integration of persons with disabilities in society.

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), and based on the Economic and Social Council Resolution adopted in June 2018 (E/RES/2018/8), the five United Nations Regional Commissions have been mandated to undertake a regional review and appraisal of progress made in the implementation of the BPFA since the last review that took place five years ago.



The Working Group aims to achieve the following goals:
1. To agree upon on the regional positions on the items for discussion and decision of the fifty-second session of the UN Statistical Commission to be transmitted on behalf of the Arab region;
2. To discuss any other issues related to the development of official statistics in the Arab region.