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	Remember, Mandela told us, “It always seems impossible, until it’s done” by Navi Pillay UN High Commissioner for Human Rights   We are about to watch a film about a time when the people of the world united in favour of equality, dignity, forgiveness and joy.   Thousands of kilometres away from South Africa – where apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation, was generating brutality and humiliation on a massive scale – women, men and children who were in no way directly connected to that situation began protesting.   Ordinary families from all over the world boycotted goods produced under apartheid. And as that boycott heightened, a number of musicians staged the biggest concerts the world had ever seen to protest apartheid and demand the liberation of Nelson Mandela.   As Mandela said, those people “chose to care”. And to us in South Africa, that was exhilarating and deeply moving – to think that the injustice, fear and violence that we daily suffered mattered to so many people, so far away.   The apartheid government resisted international scrutiny. It brandished the slogan, “Do not interfere in our internal affairs”. This is a slogan that I, as High Commissioner, and the Human Rights Council have often encountered, as governments warn us not to intrude in the internal affairs of sovereign states with our human rights concerns.   But the apartheid regime could not intimidate the people of the world, or the organisation of the United Nations. They persisted in their fight for equality and dignity. And apartheid was vanquished. After he was freed, Mandela traveled to New York to, as he said, “salute the United Nations and its Member States, both singly and collectively,for joining forces with the masses of our people, in a common struggle that has brought about our emancipation and pushed back the frontiers of racism.”   In following years, through sheer force of example, Mandela led South Africa away from the very brink of bloodshed and vengeance. He invited his own oppressors to join in his government. He taught us that bigotry and discrimination are never justified, on any grounds – not even tit for tat. He never sold out, he never caved in, and despite everything he endured, he never seemed to develop bitterness, cruelty or rancour. He showed us that we cannot ever be truly free at the expense of others’ freedoms.   You’ve heard people talk about the law of force and the force of law. There is also the power of inclusion, the strength of empathy, the deep pull of justice and the magnetism of forgiveness and love. When Nelson Mandela created reconciliation in South Africa – a country scarred by generations of terrible injustice – love triumphed over fear and hatred, and empathy and inclusion triumphed over domination and greed.   Today is Mandela day. All of us are asked to devote 67 minutes to the service of others – to activities that promote social justice and human rights, or which help vulnerable people – in order to honour Mandela’s 67 years of struggle for freedom and justice.   All of us have, within us, a Nelson Mandela. Someone who desires to change the world. Someone who is strong enough and committed enough to effect real change. Someone who yearns to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.   I believe that not only are all human beings born free and equal in dignity and rights – we are also endowed with a sense of what is universally just.   Nelson Mandela’s life was a model of what one person can achieve with strength of character and force of commitment. His capacity for forgiveness inspired countless others to work for reconciliation. His leadership transformed the institutions of the South African state and saved the country from civil war. On an even larger scale, it galvanized people all over the world to work for racial and gender equality, conflict resolution, and greater justice.   Many challenges remain before we overcome discrimination and other violations of human rights. But the values that Nelson Mandela incarnated – reconciliation, fairness, equality and dignity – remain vivid. Today, by inspiring people everywhere to take action for social justice, we seek to build a global movement for human rights. All human rights, for all people, everywhere.   Remember, Mandela told us, “It always seems impossible, until it’s done”.   http://theelders.org/article/mandela-day-2014-how-will-you-be-ethical-leader http://theelders.org/news-media/ethical-leadership Visit the related web page
	Disability Rights Are Human Rights by Theresia Degener Open Society   May 2014   When I was young, German law prohibited children with disabilities from attending regular schools. However my father, who was the only doctor in the village, petitioned the headmaster and told him that he would not treat the headmaster’s children if I was unable to attend the regular school.   The headmaster said this was illegal and that he would call the police. My father unflinchingly told him to call them. I was impressed that my father was willing to go to jail so that I could attend a regular school. It was this moment that made me realize that I wanted to repeal the discriminatory laws that prohibited me from attending school.   As an adult, in 1981, I organized a protest against the German government. That year the government was celebrating its “achievements” in disability rights through its International Year of Persons with Disabilities. We set up a “cripple tribunal” to publicly accuse the government of violating the rights of persons with disabilities. We called ourselves “crippled” because that is how we felt the government had treated us.   When I first began working in the disability rights movement, I didn’t believe in human rights. As a lawyer, I believed that the human rights field consisted of weak laws that couldn’t be enforced.   It was not until I began working with the Human Rights Commission and advocates from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that I began to believe in the power of human rights. It took me a while to understand that these rights are important because they go beyond nationality, cultural limits, or religion to find common ground in the international arena.   The right to be recognized as a person before the law is one of the basic and fundamental human rights. Prior to the 2006 adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), persons with disabilities were denied this right.   The Convention is not about inventing new human rights. It is important that disability rights are mainstreamed in the general human rights movement and that the catalog of rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Rights is tailored to include the context of disability.   Usually during human rights treaties negotiations, you have conflicts between different states or between governments and NGOs. But during the negotiations of the CRPD, you had disagreements among different disability organizations.   One big issue was the question of whether there should be a human right to segregated education. The deaf organizations demanded the right to separate schools for the deaf and hard of hearing so that they could succeed in an environment supportive of their needs and identity.   However, segregated education cannot be a human right since it is inherently unequal. The various disability organizations were able to resolve this tension in Article 24 of the CRPD, which states that every child has a right to inclusive education and includes specific paragraphs with regard to deaf and blind children.   The CRPD is one of the most modern, innovative human rights treaties. Yet its implementation is a larger struggle. The understanding of disability remains complicated even among states that have ratified the Convention.   Disability is a social construct, not a medical condition. A medical model of disability says that it is a problem that needs to be taken care of by doctors or rehabilitation experts. A human rights model says that we need to change policies and laws to be inclusive of persons with disabilities. For example, under the human rights model, laws which allow for legal incapacitation of disabled persons on the ground of mental cognitive impairment are a violation of rights because they deny these individuals the right to be recognized as a person before the law.   The implementation of human rights treaties has to be seen as a process, and this process should include many people and groups across society. It is not sufficient for only governments to affirm their commitment to disability rights.   We also need persons with disabilities and their organizations to understand why human rights are important for them and why they need to fight for their rights. Unless we are empowered to uphold our rights, human rights for persons with disabilities will not become a reality.   * Theresia Degener is a professor of law and disability studies in Germany, and vice chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Visit the related web page
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