UN General Assembly Resolution 56/168 of 2001, on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, represented a long-awaited response to disabled people’s demands for the equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
This seminar combines theoretical explorations of the issue of disability and human rights with the concerns of the international disabled peoples’ movement, within the context of the proposed new Convention, providing an important opportunity to promote essential dialogue between diverse stakeholders.
The seminar promotes a synthesis of theory and practice, with the overarching aim of advancing the effective enjoyment of human rights through the application of existing instruments as well as the proposed new Convention. If a new international legal instrument is to achieve what the UN’s human rights framework has thus far been unable to ensure, the process of its development must be informed by, and account for, the lived experience of disabled people.
Topics covered include:
- is there a place for disability in human rights discourse and practice?
- from institutionalised risk to best practice
- investigating and preventing abuse
- human rights and development
- disabled refugees and asylum seekers
- empowering and supporting disabled children
- armed conflict and refugees
- national and regional human rights institutions
The seminar is expected to attract a diverse and influential group of participants, including disabled people, policy-makers, human rights agencies, non-governmental organisations and lawyers. Help will be available for participants with additional needs.
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