Link to DRI PSA Senate Bill for the International Children with Disabilities Protection Act. HERE Link to Livestream recording of the Senate Briefing & Reception Celebrating the International Children with Disabilities Protection Act and International Day of Persons with Disabilities. HERE
Senate Briefing & Reception
Celebrating International Day of Disability and the International Children with Disabilities Protection Act When: Tuesday, December 6, 2022, 3:30-5 PM (please arrive early to go through security) Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room SDG-11, 50 Constitution Ave. NE Accessible visitor’s entrance: 1st & C St. NE Accommodations: Sign language will be available Reception: Refreshments before/after […]
Bipartisan Senators Introduce International Children with Disabilities Protection Act in US Congress
This bill represents everything we’ve been working on for over two decades. All children — especially children with disabilities — need our support to live and grow up in a loving family. And they need protection against being placed in orphanages or other institutions. — Laurie Ahern, President, Disability Rights International Today, a bipartisan group of senators, led […]
UN CRPD Committee Approves New Guidelines on Deinstitutionalization, including times of emergency.
On September 9, 2022 the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) adopted the new Guidelines on Deinstitutionalization, including times of emergency. The Guidelines provide a roadmap to governments, disability activists, and donors about the immediate steps needed to end the practice of institutionalization and residential treatment or care for people with disabilities. […]
BBC followed Disability Rights International into Ukraine institutions for children with disabilities
“The billions of dollars of international aid being pumped into Ukraine during the war should also be used to shut down orphanages, support families to care for their children and build a community that accepts disability,” says Eric Rosenthal, Executive director of DRI. https://www.bbc.com/news/disability-62226636 Full documentary will be aired soon.
NBC News Highlights DRI’s Work in Ukraine
Russia’s War Creates Orphanage Crisis In Ukraine More than 11 million people have fled Ukraine as a result of Russia’s invasion. But many of most the vulnerable — mentally and physically disabled children — have been left behind.
Side event: Lessons learned from Ukraine: Implementing the right to live in the community for children and adults in institutions during a time of war and emergency
United Nations, 15th session of Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Friday, June 17, 2022 10:00-11:15 EST Zoom registration: shorturl.at/juMQ8 Accessibility: CART and Sign Language Interpretation AvailableModerator: Eric Rosenthal, Executive Director, Disability Rights International Speakers: Gerard Quinn, UN Special Rapporteur on Disability Halyna Kurylo, Director of Ukraine’s […]
New Report: Left Behind in the War: Dangers Facing Children with Disabilities in Ukraine’s Orphanages
They gave us the children no one else wanted. No one wants something hard and difficult like this. They unloaded them from the train like dead bodies. – Director, Institution #1 Children who come here stay their whole life. This is their fate. There is no place else to go. This is a degradation of […]
DRILifeSaver: Protect Children and Adults with Disabilities in Ukraine’s Institutions
We need your help. For thirty years, Disability Rights International (DRI) has been a global leader in using human rights documentation to fight violence and abuse against children and adults with disabilities. During the COVID pandemic, access to institutions became more difficult at a time that institutions became even more dangerous. DRI created DRILifeSaver to […]
Ukraine Emergency Action – DRI Seeks Immediate Support
Your support is needed to protect children and adults with disabilities in Ukraine. Everyone is suffering. But babies, children, and adults with disabilities in group homes, orphanages and institutions are lost and forgotten. In this conflict, they are in grave danger of being abandoned by staff — facing starvation and death. DRI is sounding the […]