The College of Law at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) organized a seminar entitled, “Legal Aspects Relating to the Disabled” on Tuesday 21/4/2015 in the College of Information Technology on the Maqam Campus. It was attended by professors, other specialists and students. The Seminar focused on legislation and conventions regarding the rights of disabled people.

During the seminar the rights of disabled people were identified and discussed. This covered issues such as the difficulty of integrating disabled people socially; legal protection for the disabled (in line with national legislation and international conventions) and empirical models explaining the vocational rehabilitation of the disabled. The seminar had three main themes: the legal basis for the prevention of discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantees concerning the rights of the disabled; civil and criminal liability, and legal assistance for the disabled, and a discussion of the educational and professional experiences of people with disabilities.

Dr. Butti Al Muhairi, Assistant Professor in the College of Law, chaired the first session on the rights of the disabled in the UAE and the criminal protection afforded to the disabled. This included legislation to exclude criminal responsibility for the mental disordered and to guarantee the rights of the disabled in light of Sharia and other laws. This applied also to the criminal responsibility for disabled people. The second session was chaired by Dr. Hassan Al Marzooqi, Chairman of the Sharia and Islamic Studies Department at UAEU. This session discussed the disabled person’s rights in Sharia Law and in the UAE. Finally, legal protection for the disabled and a prohibition on medical experiments on people with disabilities was discussed.