Mr. George Khoury
Vice chair of the national association for the rights of persons with disabilities in Lebanon (NARD) (MGoS)
Mr. George Khoury has been a disability activist since the 1970s, who has spent a few decades trying to serve the cause of disability by voluntary activities most of the time, while carrying out some paid activities such as research and training tasks in the field.
He joined the National Association for the Rights of Disabled (NARD) People in Lebanon in 1991; became Vice President in 1995, and was elected President for a three-year term in 2002. His work with NARD focuses on different topics, on organizing and running some of the tens of training workshops and debate groups, and awareness-raising activities. His work has so far been concentrated on defending the rights of persons with disabilities, lobbying the proper and full implementation of Lebanon’s Law 220 on the rights of persons with disabilities, spotting violations of persons with disabilities' rights in Lebanon; lobbying the parliament for the ratification of the CRPD and the Optional Protocol; and paying greater attention to the rights of under-represented groups of persons with disabilities in Lebanon.
He joined the Musawat Project run in partnership with Handicap International in 2011, and carried out a field survey of the conditions of persons with disabilities, organizations of persons with disabilities and disability laws in eight countries based on the answers to a forty queries in a questionnaire prepared in light of the rights, principles and proposed regulations cited by the CRPD different articles; the study was published by NARD at the end of Musawat II in 2013.
He has earned a living by working with various press groups, publishing houses and even NGOs as a free-lance journalist, researcher, translator and interpreter as of 1980 until the end of 2018 summer. Currently, he is completing a fellowship with the Arab Organization of Persons with Disabilities funded by the International Disability Alliance.
George attended the Arab Regional Sustainable Development Forum in 2019 on behalf of the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities.