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Disability Rights Advocacy Workbook
By Andrea Shettle, MSW | October 5, 2008
How can disability advocates explain to others the difference between the “charity,” “medical,” “social,” and “rights” model of disability? How can communities and allies educate themselves about the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their countries? How can people with disabilities learn about laws in their country that affect their lives? How can advocates teach other people about human rights for people with disabilities and the importance of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)?
People seeking answers to these questions can turn to the Disability Rights Advocacy Workbook (PDF format, 421 Kb), published by Survivors Corps (formerly known as Landmine Survivors Network).
Section 1, entitled “Advocacy for People with Disabilities,” explains why the charity and medical models of disability are often disempowering and how the social and rights model can help. It shares advice on prioritizing among the many challenges experienced by people with disabilities and how to choose the most effective strategies for advocating for long-lasting change. The section also encourages strong collaboration among like-minded organizations and offers ideas for locating useful information and statistics. A set of exercises can guide advocates and allies through brainstorming exercises to help them examine the advocacy work they are already doing and how they can improve.
Section two, entitled “How Does Human Rights Advocacy Work?”, explains what human rights are and how various human rights documents helps protect them. The exercises makes recommendations for the kind of information that advocates should know about and how advocates can locate this information.
Section three, entitled “How Do You Use International Human Rights Treaties for Advocacy?”, discusses how existing human rights instruments can help people with disabilities–including, but not limited to, the new international disability rights treaty, called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It offers advice on how people can advocate for their country to ratify and then implement the CRPD.
Download the full 30 page workbook in PDF format (421 Kb) at:
Find more resources related to the CRPD at:
http://wecando.wordpress.com/resources-toolkits-and-funding/#CRPD resources
and at
http://ratifynow.org/category/teaching-tool/
Learn more about the CRPD itself by reading the RatifyNow FAQ; also learning about the accompanying Optional Protocol.
Learn how you can become involved with the global campaign to promote the ratification and implementation of both the CRPD and the Optional Protocol in your country and elsewhere.
Topics: Teaching Tool |
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