ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Nujeen Mustafa, a 20-year-old Syrian Kurd who escaped her besieged hometown of Kobani in 2015, addressed the UN Security Council on Wednesday, at the UK’s request, on the need to support Syrians with disabilities.
“We cannot wait. You need to address the needs of people with disabilities. This is not charity. This is our right,” Mustafa told attendees.
“In Syria, I didn’t have a wheelchair, so I had to be carried around by my siblings. But many people with disabilities cannot depend on their families to help them reach safety – often because their family members have been killed or have already left.”
Mustafa is the first person with a disability to formally brief the Security Council, and one of very few Syrians given such an opportunity since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
Last year, she met with the Kurdistan’s Region’s Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani, in Erbil.
“Today, at the UK’s request, Nujeen Mustafa briefed UNSC. Her amazing story highlights the impact of war on people with disabilities. We are still not seeing full humanitarian access in Syria,” UK Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Karen Pierce, tweeted.
“No-one should be excluded from humanitarian assistance, deliberately or inadvertently.”
As war broke out, Mustafa, at the age of 16, was forced to flee, first to her native Kobani and eventually Turkey. Since then, she has traveled the world to advocate for governments and UN agencies to include people with disabilities in their humanitarian response.