Deinstitutionalisation Under Siege: A network for deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities in the Middle East

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It is estimated that up to 15% of people with disabilities live in institutional care globally - 150 million people (UN, 2018), and this is likely to be an underestimate. Empirical evidence has shown that institutionalisation results in negative outcomes for children and adults, which has been further heightened during the Covid-19 pandemic, where there were disproportionate numbers of deaths of persons with disabilities in care institutions. The issue of deinstitutionalisation is of pressing global importance as highlighted at the Global Disability Summit 2022. The proposed network, 'De-institutionalisation Under Siege', a network on deinstitutionalisation for people with disabilities in Lebanon and Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) is timely given the UN's work since 2020 on developing guidelines on deinstitutionalisation for persons with disabilities. In June 2022, a call was issued for submissions on guidelines on deinstitutionalisation including in emergencies Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with a particular interest in obtaining evidence from persons with disabilities through representative civil society organisations. There is, however, a tension between the international impetus to deinstitutionalise and insufficient infrastructure within communities, particularly in Global South contexts, to support people with disabilities remaining with their families and living in communities. Our proposed network is unique and innovative in that it will use creative arts and humanities methods to capture lived experiences and views on disability, and leverage a range of existing international partnerships, whilst building new ones with specific expertise on deinstitutionalisation, and collecting data in an under-researched but highly significant and timely topic. This proposed network will be led by Professor Dina Kiwan (University of Birmingham, UK) in conjunction with Centre for Lebanese Studies (Dr. Maha Shuayb), Birzeit University (Professor Rita Giacaman) and Islamic University of Gaza (Dr. Nazmi al-Masri) which will build on the work of our current AHRC GCRF Network 'Disability Under Siege' (DUS), funded by the AHRC (£2M; 2020-2024), where we are addressing the challenge that most children with disabilities in the region never go to school. This new network's added value is to focus specifically on the topic of deinstitutionalisation, bringing in additional specialist project partners with expertise in this area. It is anticipated that the network will be made up of a range of stakeholders, enabling dialogue between policymakers including, UN organisations, disability activists and NGOs, people with disabilities, family members, and institutions themselves.