Hassan Ali bin Ali addressing delegates and guests at the opening session
By Peter Townson/Staff Reporter

The fifth International Shafallah Forum opened yesterday, with officials and delegates praising Qatar’s commitment to support humanitarian relief efforts around the world, and urging those in attendance to act upon the discourse taking place over the next two days.
The conference, held under the slogan “Crisis, Conflict and Disability: Ensuring Equality,” has brought together some 250 people with disabilities, experts, government representatives and non-governmental officials to take part in panel discussions related to crisis management for people living with disabilities.
The forum is held under the patronage of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser , who attended yesterday and officially opened the Al Noor Institute premises at the Shafallah Centre for children with special needs.
Co-chaired by Hassan Ali bin Ali and Cherie Blair, one of the keynote speakers at the conference was Baroness Valerie Amos, who spoke to delegates yesterday afternoon.
The wife of the UK’s former Prime Minister, Blair highlighted the close relationship between the Baroness and her husband, as well as her pioneering role in British politics.
Blair spoke about the importance of the forum, and of the impact that previous events have made on people around the world.
“When I first visited the Shafallah centre in 2006 I knew we had a very special place for people and children with disabilities, but what I didn’t know then, was the impact it would have globally,” she said.
“This conference has gone from strength to strength and it is now very firmly on the map in the international arena as a place where we talk about issues that really affect people, but we go further than that, and we take that talk into action,” she added.
Blair introduced Amos, explaining that in her role as the UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, she has travelled around the world to assist with crisis response efforts.
Welcoming the guests, Amos praised the work of HH Sheikha Moza and Shafallah, and the efforts of the Qatari government and NGOs in contributing towards international humanitarian work.
“Qatar is becoming a global leader in humanitarian affairs, offering not only their generosity but also fresh thinking in the way that we seek to resolve crises,” she said, adding “this is not just about creating a truly global humanitarian network, it’s also about recognising that our response needs to be context-specific and wherever possible, it needs to be person-specific.”
She explained that challenges facing people with disabilities in crisis situations rarely make the headlines, and noted that awareness has to be raised about the particular issues which they face as a group.
With as few as 10% of people with disabilities getting access to shelter or care in some disaster situations, Amos said that much more needs to be done to understand and support a community which has been consistently overlooked and marginalised. “Behind every statistic there is a person, there is the potential for a human tragedy.”
Amos said that “we have a clear moral obligation which goes way beyond our legal obligation – it has to go beyond that, we have a human responsibility.”
She spoke about two recent crises, the first being the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, and the second the flooding in the Philippines, which have shown that numerous organisations are responding to these disasters and trying to keep people with disabilities at the forefront of their efforts.
She urged those in attendance to “seize the momentum” that the responses to these two events have provided, and ensure that the needs of people with disabilities are “integrated and at the centre of our thinking – not an add-on.”
“I look forward to us all taking the ideas from this conference and implementing them and really making a difference, so that in a year’s time or two years’ time, we don’t have to come back here and say that things haven’t got any better,” concluded Amos.

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