PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2454-5899 Available Online at: http://grdspublishing.org/ 563 Aref & Attia, 2017 Volume 3 Issue 3, pp. 563-579 Date of Publication: 15th December, 2017 DOI-https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.33.563579 This paper can be cited as: Aref, A., & Attia, M. (2017). Disability Protection in Work-Family Balance Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 3(3), 563- 579. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. DISABILITY PROTECTION IN WORK-FAMILY BALANCE POLICIES IN THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL Ahmed Aref Researcher at the Family Policy Department, Doha International Family Institute, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar aaref@qf.org.qa Mostafa Attia PhD Researcher and Teaching Assistant, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England ml07mmk@leeds.ac.uk Disclaimer This policy oriented research article was accomplished by Ahmed Aref and Mostafa Attia in their personal capacity for their participation in the 23 rd International Conference on Social Science and Humanities, Imperial College London, 11-12 September, 2017. The analysis and opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not reflect the view of the University of Leeds or Doha International Family Institute. Abstract Work–family balance (WFB) has come to the forefront of policy discourse globally in recent years. The emergence of both the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), along with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has forced disability protection