DPI NAC Inc. Member Organization in Barbados set to celebrate its 30^th Anniversary!

Bridgetown, Barbados – This year, the Barbados National Organization of the Disabled Incorporated (BARNOD Inc.) will be celebrating its 30^th Anniversary with a series of events scheduled to take place during the course of the year.

The celebrations will be officially launched on Wednesday, 30^th January, 2013 by the Minister for Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development who will give the feature address.  More information about the activities will be posted once they come to hand.

DPI successfully completed its 2^nd Executive Council Meeting

GURGAON, India – Disabled Peoples' International (DPI) concluded an Executive Council meeting from November 22-24, 2012 in Gurgaon, India, the second since the election of the new Executive Council at the DPI Eighth World Assembly from October 10-13, 2011 in Durban, South Africa.  DPI 1^st Deputy Chair for Human Rights/DPI NAC Inc. President and DPI Executive Member/DPI NAC Inc. Vice President attended the meeting.  Follow this and other events of DPI on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DPI_Info and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Disabled-Peoples-International-DPI/525593520800576?fref=ts.

The Commonwealth of Dominica ratifies the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Optional Protocol (OP)

ROSEAU, Commonwealth of Dominica – The Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica joins the CARICOM countries of Haiti, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Optional Protocol on October 1, 2012.

Congratulations to the Disabled Peoples' International North America and the Caribbean Incorporated (DPI NAC Inc.) Member Organization, the Dominica Association of Persons with Disabilities Incorporated (DAPD Inc.) for its organized campaign that began with workshops in January 2012 culminating with a national consultation and a Cabinet presentation to the Government of Dominica in April 2012 that has resulted in this very significant action taken on behalf of the community of persons with disabilities in that country, and indeed further afield! DAPD Inc. has offered to make its campaign strategy available to other DPI NAC Inc. Member Organizations upon request.  Click here to read the press statement from DAPD Inc.

Jamaica ratified the CRPD in 2007 and so did Belize in 2011 but neither country has ratified the Optional Protocol as yet. 

St. Kitts Nevis Association of Persons with Disabilities President presents at the 18^th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers

President of the St. Kitts Nevis Association of Persons with Disabilities (SKNAPD), Mr. Anthony Mills has been recommended to speak as a panel discussant in the segment that looks at Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) at the 18^th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers (18CCEM) from August 28-31, 2012 in Mauritius.  The session will address Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) captioned "Opening Access for People with Disabilities or Creating New Barriers?"  The panel discussion will cover the following topic areas:

• Promising innovations for developing country contexts

• Barriers to realizing the potential of technology to transform access and quality

• Gender dimensions of ICT in the classroom

Mr. Mills, a person with physical disabilities who uses a wheelchair will bring to the discussion the views and challenges of persons with disabilities in the Caribbean.  The theme for 18CCEM is "Education in the Commonwealth: bridging the gap as we accelerate towards achieving internationally agreed goals".  Click here to learn all about the 18CCEM. 

DPI NAC Inc. RYN Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator attend the AIDS-Free World Disability and HIV Leadership Forum

The DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network (RYN) Coordinator, Mr. Ganesh Singh and the DPI NAC Inc. RYN Deputy Coordinator, Miss Sharmalee Cardoza attended the AIDS-Free World Disability and HIV Leadership Forum between July 21-27, 2012. They participated in the Disability & HIV Leadership Forum on July 21, 2012 and the XIX International AIDS Conference from July 22-27, 2012 in Washington, DC.  The DPI Program Manager, Mr. Steven B. Estey was also attended the event.  Click here to read more about the event.   

Led by the DPI Member National Assembly in the USA, the United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD), representatives from the US State Department, in particular Ms. Judith E. Heumann, and other stakeholders gave testimonies to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Thursday, July 12, 2012 asking the US Government to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)!  Click here to listen to the entire Senate hearing. 

DPI NAC Inc. represented at the First Continental "America Solidaria" Meeting in Ecuador

The current Vice President of Ecuador, Mr. Lenín Moreno Garcés and the World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Hasan Tuluy invited several persons with disabilities and government representatives responsible for issues facing persons with disabilities to attend the First Continental Meeting entitled "America Solidaria", including the DPI Executive Member, Vice President of DPI NAC Inc., and Chairperson of the Combined Disabilities Association (CDA), Mrs. Henrietta Davis-Wray; the DPI NAC Inc. Treasurer and President of the Dominica Association of Persons with Disabilities Inc., Mr. Michael Murphy; and President of the St. Kitts Nevis Association of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Anthony Mills.

The event included a 2-day workshop and an inaugural banquet to celebrate and support the nomination of Mr. Lenin Moreno Grace for the prestigious award of the Nobel Peace Prize for all the work he has done for people with disabilities from June 11-12, 2012 in Quito, Ecuador.  The World Bank covered all travel and hotel expenses of all the invited delegates to join in the initiative that was launched by the Ecuadorian Vice President.  The main idea of the event was to share with all the countries the Ecuadorian experience of the Program "Misión Solidaria Manuela Espejo" that has been implemented to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and their families.

The nomination of Mr. Garcés is the first time the issue of disability or human rights of persons with disabilities has been recognized by the Peace Price Committee. 

CRPD has so far been able to create a ripple just to the extent that Nations of the world are scurrying in a race to ratify

Removing Barriers, Promoting Integration: Towards Implementing the CRPD and Post 2015 Disability Inclusive Development Goals

Keynote Address by Javed Abidi, Chairperson, Disabled Peoples' International (DPI), Beijing, China on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 2:34 AM

The recent 'World  Disability Report' published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank says that 15% of the world's population is affected with a disability.  Of this, 800 million people [with disabilities] live in the developing world.  If we take a conservative estimate, India and China alone will account for at least 200 million people with disabilities.  And, if we use the 15% theory, our two Nations would account for as many as 400 million disabled people, more than the entire population of the United States of America.  The very first point I am making is that if the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is truly implemented in just our two countries, this in itself will cover a huge percentage of the world's population affected with disability.  More… 

Is ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us,’ just a jargon today?

DPI Chair, Mr. Javed Abidi’s second blog entry, May 2012 on the Disability Rights Knowledge Network hosted by the Commonwealth Connects Portal at http://www.commonwealthconnects.org/connects/.

In the 1980s, a revolution took place in the lives of millions of people with disabilities across the world when they decided that they themselves will take decisions affecting their lives and thereby rejecting the hold that parents and professionals had on the disability sector and its policy and decision making until then. And thus was born the slogan ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us’.  Click here for the complete blog. 

Information is Power: But are we hearing what the grassroots have to say?

DPI Chair, Mr. Javed Abidi’s first blog entry, April 2012 on the Disability Rights Knowledge Network hosted by the Commonwealth Connects Portal at http://www.commonwealthconnects.org/connects/

The 80s and the 90s saw a gradual rise in the organisations of people with disabilities, self-advocates who were the front-runners in all the discussions surrounding disability issues. Professionals, parents and NGOs had no choice but to take a back seat. Up until the passage of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  Click here to read the complete blog. 

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