A generation ago, many people with disabilities were locked away in institutions, thought to be “unfit for citizenship” or burdens on society. Children with disabilities could not attend regular schools, not only because schools were inaccessible, but because there was an assumption that children with disabilities should be segregated.
In response, and based on similar strategies of the civil and women’s rights movements, the disability rights movement formed in the 1970s to advocate for the rights of people with disabilities under the rallying call “Nothing about us without us!”
In 1990, the disability rights movement secured a major victory -- the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark legislation required all sectors of society to remove barriers that prevent disabled people from full participation in American life. In 1999, the movement took Georgia's Olmstead case to the Supreme Court, which ruled that disabled people must be able to live in the “most integrated setting” possible in their communities.
While many people with disabilities are succeeding in all aspects of American life, negative attitudes persist. Disabled people still experience bullying and stereotyping. The long-term care system forces people with disabilities to live in nursing homes and other institutions instead of their own homes. Efforts to promote the dignity, potential, and equality of all people continue.
Around the world, people with disabilities have modeled their own domestic legislation on the ADA, joining with advocates in the United States to create an international movement, including an international treaty -- the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities -- which sets a single standard for the rights of disabled people globally.
While the UK government claims its moves “will protect the most vulnerable,” in reality its plans to cut £4.5 billion in disability-linked benefits by 2030 will have a devastating impact on people’s rights.
Turning my own lived experience into advocacy is what motivated me to participate in the UN’s global annual disability rights conference this June.
And indeed, joining the Conference of State Parties (COSP) to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was an excellent opportunity to share two decades of experience and to learn from other disability rights advocates from around the world.
Last April, I turned 60—a life filled with wonderful experiences and important challenges. At four months, I had polio and spent a month in an iron lung. While I survived, polio left me with lifelong sequelae, a physical disability requiring significant support. And since then, I’ve also been a wheelchair user.
Vahagn Petrosyan was 36 years old when a court stripped him of his legal capacity in September 2015, claiming his psychosocial disability prevented him from being able to make his own decisions.
UN member states should ensure that people with disabilities are included in efforts to strengthen protection and uphold international humanitarian law and human rights law.
Having a disability should never result in a person being denied freedom. Yet across Latin America, thousands of people with disabilities are still forcibly institutionalized, often from a young age, with little control over their lives.
Luisinho, a 26-year-old man with albinism whom I interviewed in Mozambique, faced a heartbreaking choice: either continue working outdoors under life-threatening sun exposure or quit his job selling second-hand clothes, thereby pushing himself and his family deeper into poverty. He needed to make this choice because he could not afford adequate sun protection.
Leonardo Barcellos, a 32-year-old disability rights advocate, died of asphyxiation on February 26 after a power outage at his home in Rio de Janeiro prevented the machine he used to breathe, from working, his mother told me. He had progressive muscular dystrophy, a condition that weakens muscles.
This week, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities issued a bleak assessment of Canada’s immigration detention system, calling for Canada to protect the legal capacity rights of people with disabilities in detention and urging an end to immigration detention altogether.
The Global Disability Summit in Berlin on April 2-3 will serve as a crucial platform for advancing disability rights worldwide. It aims to bridge policy gaps, promote accessibility, and secure concrete commitments to disability inclusion from governments and stakeholders.
Now that Yamandú Orsi, who won Uruguay's presidency takes office, he has an opportunity to make history by focusing on strengthening the country's policies to support people with disabilities and other marginalized populations.
Today marks two years since the passing of Judy Heumann. A fierce advocate and member of Human Rights Watch’s Board of Directors, Judy was often hailed as the “Mother of the Disability Rights Movement.” As we see US disability rights protections threatened by Trump administration policies, I’ve been thinking about Judy’s remarkable legacy and how she would have fought back.
The recently published National Development Plan 2025-2030 includes some actions to support people with disabilities. However, it is currently missing a crucial opportunity that could benefit the more than eight million people living with disabilities in the country: the care agenda.
Israeli authorities denied an orthopedic surgeon entry into Gaza last week, preventing her from providing crucial treatment to children with disabilities. One of her patients, Minah, a 3-year-old girl with a clubfoot condition, has been left without necessary treatment for months.
The National Code of Civil and Family Procedure (CNPCF), published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on June 7, 2023, represents an unprecedented milestone in the legal history of the country, the region, and the world.
Upon the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza, on January 15 the World Health Organization urged Israel to allow expedited evacuations for over 12,000 Palestinians in need of lifesaving care outside the Gaza Strip.
Older people needing such medical support should be among those evacuated.
I didn't expect to find children, let alone toddlers, in a state-run institution for adults in Kano, northern Nigeria. One of the them was Aisha, a girl between 3 and 4 years old, who lived there with her mother, Hauwa, 25, who was deaf and had a psychosocial disability.
United States President Donald J. Trump’s barrage of anti-immigrant policies has garnered worldwide attention, but Canada is taking a dark turn of its own.
On December 6, I briefed the United Nations Security Council at its first informal meeting in five years on the protection of people with disabilities in armed conflict.