Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities

• March 12, 2021

While recently attending a virtual tour of the United Nations Office at Vienna, I was astonished to learn that the translation services did not include sign language interpreters. There are six official UN languages — Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish — that provide “clear and concise communication on issues of global importance,” according …

Disabilities, SDGs, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Six Women, Including This Ghanaian, Join the UN’s Disability Committee

Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame

• June 15, 2018

When I was growing up in Ghana, if someone had told me that one day I would hear my name announced as a member of a United Nations treaty body, I would hardly have believed it. But this is where I find myself, after many years of personal and professional experience fighting for disability …

Disabilities, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Understanding Disability, Starting at Home

Dulcie Leimbach

• November 7, 2016

Our daughter, Isabella, is slowly losing her sight. I don’t say this with ease or fear but conditionally, as her vision can be fully restored, her doctor has reassured us, as he ups her medications and we wait for better news. For now, though, Isabella is losing her ability to see. As a university …

Disabilities, WORLDVIEWS

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Isn’t It Time for the US to Ratify the UN Treaty on Disabilities?

Tino Calabia

• December 18, 2013

The seventh anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities at United Nations headquarters in New York was commemorated on Dec. 13. Since March 2007, when it opened for signature, the convention has been ratified by 138 countries. Modeled after the landmark United States Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), …

WORLDVIEWS

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US Foes of Disability Treaty Reflect Discomfort With UN

Barbara Crossette

• December 13, 2012

In blocking adoption by the United States of a global convention to protect the disabled, the Republican right signaled on Dec. 4 that it intends to stall or kill all international treaties sent to the Senate for ratification by the Obama administration. Even pleas from a frail and crippled Bob Dole, a former senator, …