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A Look Ahead to 2012 | |
Greetings!
I hope you received our December newsletter with highlights from 2011 at USICD. Last year featured a number of presentations and dialogues exploring global disability issues and raising awareness of the CRPD across the United States.
Disabled Peoples' International's 8th World Assembly was held in Durban, South Africa, and the Global Disability Rights Library expanded from a small collection of resources to a robust library available both online at www.gdrl.org and in DPOs throughout South Asia and Africa. What's more, 12 nations made a formal commitment last year to the human rights of persons with disabilities by ratifying the CRPD.
This coming year promises much more: the Fifth Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be held in New York this September. The GDRL will be installed in 40 more DPO locations around the world. We expect the wave of country ratifications of the CRPD to continue--and we will maintain our work toward U.S. ratification with great energy and optimism.
Of course, USICD will continue to develop as a resource to you, bringing our members' voice to international forums and providing valuable insight to you from the world of international disability rights. Look for the CRPD campaign logo below for a link to my interview LIVE, TODAY, on Joyce Bender's Disability Matters radio show!
Wishing you a wonderful New Year,
David Morrissey, Executive Director |
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USICD Celebrates the 2011 International Day of Persons with Disabilities |
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Board Member Michael Winter and USICD Member Yoshiko Dart |
In December, the USICD membership gathered to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a global recognition held annually on December 3, 2011. In keeping with this year's theme, "Together for a better world for all: Including Persons with Disabilites in Development," we were honored to have State Department Special Advisor for International Disability Rights Judith Heumann share her experiences with the Department of State working on inclusive strategies both here and abroad.
To see photos of the celebration and read the statements issued by USICD and others CLICK HERE |
USICD Takes the Global Disability Rights Library to Africa |
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GDRL Program Manager Andrea Shettle with GDRL recipients in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
In November and December, USICD's Global Disability Rights Library Program Manager Andrea Shettle visited Zambia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia with Cliff Missen from the WiderNet Project at the University of Iowa.This trip had two goals: to conduct technical installation of the GDRL and to discuss the ways in which information resources can benefit disability rights movements. Read about their trip and what they learned from the various sites that they visited while installing the GDRL. Also, don't miss Andrea's other blog from the trip discussing access to signed languages during her travels. |
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Ending a Great Year End for CRPD Education & Outreach . . . Launching 2012 with a Bang! | |
 2011 was a great year in USICD's CRPD Education & Outreach campaign: Our staff and speakers bureau gave over thirty major presentations all over the country! To wrap up a year of great events, Executive Director David Morrissey discussed how the CRPD addresses equal access to education, the promotion of independence and individual autonomy, and the recognition of dignity and self worth at the annual conference for the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities in Washington, DC. Esmé Grant, Disability Rights Program Manager, presented USICD's "Treaty 101" at the TASH Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in December. Attendees included professors, experts in the disability rights field, youth advocates and international members. David and Esmé both had the opportunity to visit with the vibrant Disability Rights Coalition at American University before year end in celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities to teach these emerging disability champions about the CRPD and its history. USICD is looking forward to events with the University of Kansas, NCIL, and many new opportunities in 2012 as the CRPD advances toward ratification in the U.S.
Please also be sure to catch David this Tuesday, January 10th, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the Joyce Bender radio show, "Disability Matters." To tune in via internet streaming broadcast, visit the VoiceAmerica Channel or call 1-866-472-5788 to contribute your questions. For real time captioning during the broadcast, click here. |
Notes on the Busan Declaration | |
 Government representatives, parliamentarians, civil society organizations and private sector representatives from over 80 countries took part in the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) in Busan, Korea, from November 29 to December 1, 2011. This is the latest in a series of gatherings in Rome, Paris and Accra that have helped transform aid relationships between donors and partners into true vehicles for development cooperation.
Over 3,000 delegates met to review progress that has been made on implementing the principles of the Paris Declaration as well as global progress in improving the impact of development aid. Delegates also made new commitments to ensure that aid helps reduce poverty and to maintain focus on effectively meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The Forum culminated in the signing of the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (Busan Declaration) by government officials.
Click Here to read the full blog post. |
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Member News and Opportunities
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Pacific Rim International Forum
Saturday, March 24, 2012 - Sunday, March 25, 2012
28th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity
Monday, March 26, 2012 - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 |
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| WORLD HEADLINES AND OPPORTUNITIES | |
Conference on Disability-Inclusive MDGs and Aid Effectiveness
Monday, March 12, 2012 - Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Universal Design Conference 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012 - Wednesday, June 13, 2012
3rd International Disability Summer School, Galway
June 18-23 2012 TRANSED 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012 - Friday, September 21, 2012
World Congress on CBR: The Key to realising UNCRPD
CBR INDIA NETWORK is organizing from 26th to 28th November 2012 in Agra. Invitation to Join International Indigenous Network of People with Disabilities
January 4, 2012 New United Nations fund to boost action on disability rights
December 19, 2011 Global development voices: living with disability
December 16, 2011
Source: The Guardian
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| CRPD Ratification Watch | |
As of
January 9, 2012
CRPD:
- 153 Signatories
- 109 Ratifications
Optional Protocol:
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90 Signatories -
63 Ratifications
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Recent Ratifications:
Macedonia (FYORM) ratified the Convention on December 29, 2011
Myanmar ratified the Convention on December 12, 2011
Indonesia ratified the Convention on December 7, 2011
Cape Verde ratified the Convention on October 10, 2011
Luxembourg ratified the Convention and Optional Protocol on September 26, 2011 |
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