International Forum on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Transforming Global Visions to Local Actions (A Pre-Conference Event)
Overview | Agenda & Proceedings | Dialogue Leaders | Facilitators
April 16-17, 2011, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, HI
Mid Pacific Conference Center—Coral Ballroom 2
The International Forum is co-sponsored by Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace
Forum Overview
Human Rights have the potential to transform human lives. But realizing the promise of rights enumerated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), as well as other international treaties, requires political will and the commitment of state actors, local government, and civil society. Our common vision—that each human being be treated with inherent dignity—is the foundation which inspires and facilitates the meaning of human rights standards, norms and procedures into transformative social change. The codification of rights lays the groundwork to realize an inclusive, equitable and just world; but human action is what makes it happen.
- Forum Agenda (PDF Format)
- 2011 Forum Proceedings (PDF Format)
Speakers and Dialogue Leaders
Joan Durocher is the National Council on Disability’s General Counsel and Director of Policy. The National Council on Disability (NCD) is an independent federal agency charged with advising the President and Congress about the broad spectrum of issues of importance to people with disabilities. She most recently served as NCD’s Interim Executive Director, and prior to her tenure as Director, Ms. Durocher served as one of NCD’s Senior Attorney/Advisors. Learn more...
Heidi Case is a disability rights advocate and activist. She is the current Co-Chair of the National Organization for Women’s Disability Rights Task Force and was a co-author of a paper on the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls with disabilities for the Center on Women’s Policy Studies (forthcoming in Spring 2011.) She is currently working on a U.S. Department of Justice grant from the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW). Learn more...
Stephanie Ortoleva is an attorney with expertise in international human rights law and U.S. civil rights law. She is not only a woman with a disability herself who is a renowned advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities and for women, but also has extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy, including the United Nations and Organization of American States systems. At the leading international law firm, BlueLaw International, LLP, she serves as the Senior Human Rights Legal Advisor, where she focuses on disability rights, women’s rights, rule of law issues, and human rights education, with concentrations on human rights programming in developing, transition and post-conflict countries. Learn more...
Marca Bristo is a nationally and internationally acclaimed leader in the disability rights movement. Ms. Bristo is the recipient of three presidential appointments from President Clinton and one congressional appointment to disability policy positions. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Distinguished Service Award of the President of the United States; the Americans with Disabilities Act Award for her role in the creation and passage of the law; the Henry B. Betts Laureate, considered the Nobel Prize in the rehabilitation / disability field; and the 1993 United Way of Chicago Executive of the Year Award. Learn more...
Rangita de Silva de Alwis is the Director of International Human Rights Policy at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. She has worked with a vast network of civil society and government organizations to develop innovative women’s rights and human rights initiatives around the world including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, Georgia and Egypt. Her work and teaching have focused on using international human rights norms to guide law reform initiatives. Learn more...
Risnawati Utami is a wheelchair user because of polio when she was 4 years old. She graduated from the Law School, Sebelas Maret University in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. She spends most of the time to be an activist in the disability rights movement since 1999. She has been managing the diverse programs intervention related public health issues particularly reproductive health and disability to promote and to empower the rights of persons with disabilities. Learn more...
Sakwe Bongo McDonald is the founder and Director of Suhedaf e.V Berlin, an independent not-for-profit, non- governmental organization committed to the fundamental creation and promotion of Sustainable health care and Development in Cameroon(Africa). In pursuing this goal, Suhedaf e.V launched projects aimed at supporting persons with disabilities in Cameroon and endeavors to provide sustaining health related materials to underprivileged persons. Learn more...
Mark Starford is the founding director and key consultant of The SCILS Group (scilsgroup.org) since 1977, a national nonprofit consulting firm dedicated to full and inclusive community participation of children with developmental disabilities and their families. In 1995, Mark created the Board Resource Center (brcenter.org) to provide best practice leadership facilitation for community organizations, the private and public sector, and government agencies. Learn more...
Carole J. Petersen is an Associate Professor in the William S. Richardson School of Law and Director of the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace. Petersen practiced law for five years before moving to Hong Kong, where she taught from 1989-2006. She is a former Director of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Comparative and Public Law and now serves as a member of its Advisory Board. Learn More...
Charmaine Crockett is Special Projects Coordinator at the Center of Disability Studies where she Co-Chairs the Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities and drums up good ideas for outreach and community participation. Previously, she worked in the area of human rights where she conducted human rights education trainings and enhanced the capacity of organizations in developing countries. Learn More...
Dr. Robert A. Stodden is a past president of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) board of directors. Professionally trained in Psychology, Special Education, and Rehabilitation, he has served more than twenty-five years as an international and national leader in the fields of special education, school to adult community living and transition, postsecondary education, and employment for persons with disabilities. Learn More...
Joshua Cooper is currently the US Human Rights Network Universal Periodic Review Geneva Coordinator for the historic first review of the human rights record of the United States of America. Cooper is also the Director of Training at the International Training Centre for Teaching Peace and Human Rights and a Trainer at the Advanced Geneva Training Course on International Law and Advocacy for the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Learn More...
Heather Walkus is a Community Developer, Organizer and Advocate in Keremeos, British Columbia Canada, with the Keremeos Measuring Up Team. The Team is a group of dedicated people with all types of Abilities, who advocate with individuals, families and organizations in mainly rural areas, throughout the Similkameen and Okanagan Valleys of southern British Columbia. She was one of 600 people who where honored to carry the Paralympic Torch at the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver BC. Learn More...
Michael Bleasdale is one of three Executive Directors of People with Disability Australia Inc, a position he has held since 2008. Prior to this he has held a number of professional roles working with people disability, over a period of more than 25 years. As the Principal Research of the Disability Studies and Research Institute, Michael published research on housing and support arrangements for people with disability, and on guardianship in Australia. Learn More...
Bethany Stevens is a faculty member and policy analyst with the Center for Leadership in Disability (CLD—a GA UCEDD) in the Institute of Public Health. Before joining the faculty at Georgia State University, Stevens served as a Center of Excellence for Sexual Health Scholar under former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher at Morehouse School of Medicine. Learn More...
Joakim Peter is the director of College of Micronesia-FSM Chuuk Campus, which is part of a six-campus junior college system in the Federated States of Micronesia. He is from the islands of Chuuk. He is also a member of a local interagency group for advocacy for children with disabilities in Chuuk. His background is Pacific History and cultural/native studies. Learn More...
Tavee Cheausuwantavee is an associate professor and a former director of Master of Art Program in Rehabilitation Science of Ratchasuda College, Mahidol University, Thailand. He also now works at Center on Disability Studies (CDS), University of Hawai‘i at Manoa as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. Learn More...
Katharina Heyer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai‘i. Her research and teaching is guided by the sociolegal inquiry into the meaning of rights and rights consciousness: what does it mean to claim disability rights? How do rights inform identity? Learn More...
Dr. Romel W. Mackelprang is the Director of the Center for Disability Studies and Universal Access at Eastern Washington University. His work in disability began in 1980 at the University of Utah where he worked in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and was also an adjunct faculty with the College of Medicine and the School of Social Work. Learn More...
Dr. Kenneth Niles is a psychologist is a lecturer/tutor in Social Gerontology at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine and recently completed a post-doctoral programme in Geropsychology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He has presented papers in Gerontology internationally and is presently researching Elder Rights and Elder Abuse.
Facilitators
Lindsey Coffey is the 2010-2011 Ropes & Gray public interest fellowship at the Matsunaga Institute for Peace & Conflict Resolution and the Institute of Asian-Pacific Business Law. Lindsey received a B.A. in Sociology from New York University in 2005 and a J.D./M.B.A. from the University at Buffalo in 2010.
Genesis Leong will be graduating in May, 2011 from the University of Hawai‘i. A major in Communication and Public Relations, she has extensive experience in event coordination, project management, client relationship and integrated marketing which has fostered a completion of collaborative leadership throughout the University of Hawai‘i System. She works at the Center on Disability Studies in the Conference, Training and Outreach Unit (CTOU).
Anne Smoke earned her BA in Journalism from Central Michigan University (1985), an MS in Travel Industry Management from the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (2007), and received a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution from the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (2009) which led her to her current role as the Program Manager/Education Specialist for the Institute. Learn More...
Lisa Uyehara is an attorney and arbitrator for the CAAPS program through the State of Hawai‘i Judiciary. She has been a facilitator/instructor for ten years with the University of Phoenix. Learn More...
Michael Corlew has been the registration coordinator for the Pacific Rim Conference since 2008. He is pursuing his degree in American History at the University of Hawai‘i where he specializes in the history of politically, socially and economically oppressed groups. He has an extensive national background in social justice activism.
Hana Omar is a graduate assistant at the Center on Disability at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. She works as an instructional designer. Currently, Hana is a Ph.D candidate in the Educational Technology program and has been in the field for five years and says, “I love every minute of it.” Two of her favorite aspects of life in Hawai‘i are the unique diverse cultures and the double rainbow after a rain.
For more information, please contact Robert Stodden at stodden@hawaii.edu or Charmaine Crockett at cccrocke@hawaii.edu.
