The Special Rapporteur
Ms. Heba Hagrass, from Egypt, was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities from 1 November 2023.
She is an advocate, an international disability consultant, and a researcher on the rights of persons with disabilities with an extensive experience in Egypt, the Arab Region, and worldwide. Ms. Hagrass is a sociologist with PhD in Disability Studies at the University in Leeds (2010) with a specialization in disability rights and social policies, gender, and employment.
At the international level, Ms. Hagrass was notably a representative of women with disabilities in the International Disability Caucus (IDC) who participated in the drafting of Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on women with disabilities.
From 2015 to 2020, Ms. Hagrass served as a Member of the House of Parliament of Egypt where she represented persons with disabilities. In this role, she submitted five draft laws relating to the rights of persons with disabilities covering different areas. Prior to becoming a member of parliament, she was the Secretary General of the Egyptian National Council for Disability Affairs. She is a board member of both the National Council for Persons with Disabilities and the National Council for Women. In Egypt, she was also a member of the committee drafting the National Human Rights Strategy of Egypt and a founding member of the Inclusive Education Foundation, a key advocate for starting the implementation of inclusive education in 2009.
