Guidelines on Inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action

In 2011, as armed militias were burning down homes in Tawergha in Libya, a woman named Hawa was unable to run because of a disability. Fortunately, she had two sisters who could carry her to safety. In the eight years since living in displacement, Hawa says she has only seen a doctor once. I have met several people like Hawa with disabilities, who are among those displaced either by raging conflicts or extreme weather events. Adapting to the new and the unfamiliar is challenging for anyone. But when speaking to people with disabilities in humanitarian settings from Bangladesh to Haiti, it brings home their added difficulties if our responses fall short. Our job is to ensure that people like Hawa are counted like any other in a humanitarian response during a crisis. It is her fundamental right – and the right of hundreds of thousands more – to access the same protection and care we provide to others. And we must ensure that special focus is on the most marginalized amongst them, such as children and older people, who often run the risk of being the most invisible.