The Right Of Persons With Disability To Decent Work In Palestine “ Field Study” Mechanisms and Practices of Recruitment and Employment: • Personal effort of PWDs was the main factor for deciding their employment in any of the three job sectors. The second factor was the personal interview; particularly in the private sector. Nothing was mentioned about the role of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Labor or the General Union of PWDs. This reflects the absence of clear policies, strategies or programs for employing PWDs, besides individual cases, indicating that there are no collective solutions. • The Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs ensure some job opportunities for PWDs at the youth centers run by them. These opportunities aren’t sufficient in terms of quantity or quality. They serve a very limited number of youths with disability. The wages provide for their services are rather low. • The governmental and non-governmental institutions still turn a blind eye to the Law of the Rights of the Palestinian persons with disability No. (4) of 1999. It binds all institutions to employ at least 5% of its staff from among the persons with disability. Many PWDs were employed during the past years but not with any assistance from a national strategy or government programs. The persons themselves achieved it due to their own personal efforts. The rate of PWDs employed at the public sector was only 3% when this study was conducted. • Personal relationship and patronage networks play a significant role in employing PWDs, particularly in the private and public sectors. In many cases, employment of PWDs in NGOs depends on projects designated for the employment of PWDs. These temporary projects are funded by foreign donors, especially in the Gaza Strip. • Vacancy announcements don’t take into account the status of PWDs. • The governmental and non-governmental institutions employ, in coordination with the competent institutions, PWDs. The opinions surveyed indicated that the private sector institutions differ from this. Only 11% of the institutions surveyed said that they do coordinate with other institutions. 5