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	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
	Maya Angelou, celebrated author and poet, dies aged 86 by Agencies USA   29 May 2014   American author and poet Maya Angelou, an eloquent commentator on race and gender best known for her groundbreaking autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", has died at age 86 in North Carolina.   The prolific African-American writer died quietly at her home in Winston-Salem, Angelou"s family said in a statement on Wednesday.   "She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. The family is extremely appreciative of the time we had with her and we know that she is looking down upon us with love," her family said.   Angelou penned more than 30 books, won numerous awards, and was honoured last year by the National Book Awards for her service to the literary community.   Her latest work, Mom & Me & Mom, about her mother and grandmother and what they taught her, was released last year.   In her last tweet on May 23, Angelou said: "Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God."   US president Barack Obama called her "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman".   "With a kind word and a strong embrace, she had the ability to remind us that we are all God"s children; that we all have something to offer," Mr Obama said in a statement.   Singer Dionne Warwick said in a statement she had been "enriched" by Angelou and her knowledge of living life to its fullest.   "She will be greatly missed, but with gratitude, her legacy of wisdom will be with me throughout my lifetime," Warwick said.   In addition to her many books, Angelou also directed, wrote and acted in movies, plays and television programs and was a singer, songwriter, educator and popular lecturer. She was a Grammy winner for three spoken-word albums.   Maya Angelou"s words, both written and spoken, have resonated with millions world wide. A brief selection of her quotes.   US poet Maya Angelou   "If growing up is painful for the Southern black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult."   Excerpt from Angelou"s first autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.   I have had so many rainbows in my clouds, I had a lot of clouds, but I"ve had so many rainbows... the thing to do is to prepare yourself to be a rainbow in someone"s cloud.   Maya Angelou   History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, need not be lived again.   Excerpt from Angelou"s poem On The Pulse Of The Morning   I write about being a black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it"s like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again.   Maya Angelou talking to the New York Times in 1997 about the wide appeal of her writing:   The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country"s table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast.   Excerpt from Angelou"s first autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings   The caged bird sings, with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard, on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.   Excerpt from Angelou"s poem I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings   I don"t run from politics when I"m writing poetry, anymore than I run from love or loss. No, I"m human and as humans we live politically, we live in political groups. Even a group of one is a political group. But I still wouldn"t describe myself as a political poet.   Maya Angelou   Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can"t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.   Excerpt from Angelou"s poem I Rise   Out of the huts of history"s shame, I rise, Up from a past that"s rooted in pain, I rise, I"m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide, Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise, Into a daybreak that"s wondrously clear.   http://mayaangelou.com/ Visit the related web page
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