Featured Projects
On October 18, 2007, RI’s member in Mexico, Libre Acceso, presented recommendations for reform of the national disability law to parliamentarians in Mexico, as part of a unique public-private partnership between RI, disability experts in Mexico, the Mexican law firm Barrera, Siqueiros y Torres Landa, S.C. Abogados and the international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. These recommendations on how national law can comply with the UN Disability Rights Convention were subsequently formally adopted by PAN, the political party of the Mexican President, as the official proposed amendments to this national law.
Global Advocacy Campaign on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Raising Awareness And Building Capacity
Having played a crucial role in the history of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, RI, together with its member organizations, is now actively engaged in Phase I of the Global Advocacy Campaign, aimed at raising awareness and building capacity for better implementation of the CRPD within and beyond the RI network. The Advocacy Campaign includes three components:
-Providing advocacy and educational materials on disability rights for use by DPOs, NGOs and governments, especially in developing countries, in various languages and in accessible formats; preparing press release templates and factsheets to be used by its broad membership for media outreach and advocacy;
-Continuing to engage in dialogue with government officials, legal professionals, parliamentarians and other policy-makers with the aim of greater collaboration, inclusion and mainstreaming of disability rights;
-Furthering its efforts on capacity building and networking for the purposes of generating good practices and recommendations, including organizing an advocacy workshop in Djerba, Tunisia in October 2007 as well as a regional conference in Mexico in April 2008. In an innovative approach to mainstreaming, RI is also collaborating with the disability community in Mexico, Costa Rica and Ecuador and the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and its local partners to conduct legal research on recommendations for implementation of the CRPD, to be presented at the Latin America Regional Conference.
RI appreciates the invaluable support for this initiative from the Open Society Institute, Irish Aid and an anonymous donor.
Building the Capacity of Women with Disabilities in India: Promoting the Rights to Health and Employment
RI is working in collaboration with a local non-governmental organization in India, Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Center (SMRC), on a two year project aimed at addressing the inequalities experienced by women with disabilities. Taking a unique multi-disciplinary approach to capacity building, the project aims to leverage existing resources and provide additional training to promote the economic self-sufficiency of women with disabilities, their access to health care services and their ability to advocate for their rights and inclusion.
This two-year project, Building the Capacity of Women with Disabilities in India: Promoting the Rights to Health and Employment, promotes greater rights and inclusion by 1) providing advocacy and leadership training to women with disabilities; 2) conducting needs assessments and skills training in the area of information and communications technology (ICT); 3) assisting women with disabilities in obtaining loans and implementing initiatives under a Government micro-credit program that includes health micro-insurance; 4) integrating women with disabilities into community structures through their participation in village self-help groups; 5) creating an interactive website to raise awareness of health issues among women with disabilities; and 6) promoting access to the Government’s Reproductive Health Care program. Using Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s capabilities framework, the project will demonstrate that, if barriers are removed, women with disabilities can be productive members of society.
This project is important for women with disabilities in India because most of them do not know about their legal protection against discrimination in the realms of education and employment. Furthermore, this project is the first of its kind to promote inclusion of persons with disabilities in India, but is modeled after successful initiatives by women’s groups in Nigeria and Uganda, Bangladesh and other parts of India. For further information about SMRC, please visit: http://www.smrcorissa.org
This project is made possible because of the generous support from the Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs and Consumer Protection.
Shantha Rau, RI Senior Program Officer, assisted in facilitating a disability rights training, together with RI Vice President for Africa Gidion Mandesi, for members of the disability community and representatives of HIV/AIDS organizations in Tanzania in December 2006.
Raising the Voice of Young People with Disabilities: AIDS and Disability Rights in Africa
In partnership with RI member Disabled Organization for Legal Affairs and Social Economic Development (DOLASED) in Tanzania and Miracles in Mozambique, RI have completed the second phase of a project to develop educational materials and training for young people with disabilities on the issue of HIV/AIDS and disability rights. The project was conducted in Tanzania and Mozambique, and the hope is that the training and participant manuals will be replicated for other countries in Africa. This project was developed to promote the African Decade of People with Disabilities - an initiative of non-governmental organizations in Africa in cooperation with UN Member States and Governments of the African Union which started in 1999 – and is a follow-up to a previous project to support leadership training among women and young people with disabilities in South Africa. Both phases of the project have been made possible thanks to the generous contribution of the Swedish International Development Association (Sida). For more information, see the one-page detailed project flyer.
Training Manual on HIV/AIDS Awareness and Disability Rights
Participant Manual on HIV/AIDS Awareness and Disability Rights