International Forum on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities (A Pre-Conference Event): Advocating for Real Change

The International Forum is co-sponsored by Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace

Text Transcript Available

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, including grass roots and local communities. 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.

Advocacy is a key to bridging vision to that action.

The 2012 Forum seeks to engage participants in a lively discussion on key areas that support and facilitate the realization of fundamental human rights for hundreds of millions of persons with disabilities, as expressed in the CRPD.

Forum Agenda

Download the Forum Agenda (PDF Format)

Speakers and Dialogue Leaders (Please check back for weekly updates on the Forum)

Katherine D. Seelman, Ph.D.is associate dean of disability programs and professor of rehabilitation science and technology at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. She holds a secondary appointment in the School of Public Health, an adjunct position at Xian Jiatong University, China and is co-scientific director of the National Science Foundation-supported Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center. Learn more...

George Kent is Professor Emeritus with the University of Hawai‘i. He was a professor in the Department of Political Science from 1970 until his retirement at the end of 2010. He currently teaches online as a part-time faculty member with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia and also with the Social Transformation Concentration at Saybrook University in San Francisco. Learn more...

Robyn Mourie is a Rehabilitation Assessor and Disability Advocate in Aotearoa, New Zealand and the Cook Islands. With 20 years of experience as a Physical Therapist and a Postgraduate degree in International Development Studies, this blending of backgrounds has taken Robyn into recent work developing an empowering, sustainable rehabilitation web matrix assessment and action plan. 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, manages a conference training outreach unit at the Center and drums up good local and global 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...

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. 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...

Juan Martín Botero is a wheelchair user because of Friederich’s Ataxia since 2005. He was born in Cali, Colombia, South America. He is a graduate from Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia. And has a masters in liberal arts, focused in anthropology, at Harvard University, at Cambridge, MA, where he now lives. He is also enrolled in the Graduate Certificate Program on Disability and Diversity Studies, at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. 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...

Patricia Welch Saleeby, Assistant Professor, received her BA from Oberlin College, MSSA from Case Western Reserve University, and she has completed her Ph.D. at Washington University. Her professional areas of interest include social, health, and disability policy, disability and chronic conditions, health disparities, international health systems, and social and economic development. Learn more...

Manulani Aluli Meyer is the fifth daughter of Emma Aluli and Harry Meyer. She is from a large family with roots in Hilo and Wailuku, who grew up on the beach of Kailua, O‘ahu. She is an outdoor experiential educator and coach who entered the philosophy and teacher-education field because of the needs of our time. She earned her doctorate from Harvard researching Hawaiian epistemology, or an indigenous philosophy of knowledge. Learn more...

Keith Jones is the Founder, President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences. An organization aimed at bringing a perspective to the issues of access, inclusion and empowerment, which affect him as well as others who are persons with a disability. Mr. Jones is also extremely active in multi-cultural, cross-disability education and outreach efforts and, conducts trainings (including train the trainer) with the purpose of strengthening efforts to provide services and information to people with disabilities. Learn more...

Masayo Furui formed and became the executive officer for the Osaka Office of the Association for People with Cerebral Palsy Green Grass in 1973. In 1974, she formed and became chair for the West Japan Federation of the Association for People with Cerebral Palsy Green Grass. She was the leader of the All-Japan Preparation Caravan for the formation of the Nation Liaison Committee for the Liberation of People with Disabilities in 1975. Learn more...

Kiyoharu Shiraishi is a representative with the Fukushima Disaster Support Center for People with Disabilities. He is also the Chief Director of IL Independent Living Center, Fukushima. He established two CILs in Fukushima in 1994. He also founded a sheltered workshop “Kuebiko” in Kanagawa in 1981. Learn more...

Toru Furui obtained his doctorate degree from Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in 2004. From 2004 to 2006, he served as Visiting Faculty at University of Pittsburgh, Human Engineering Research Laboratories. He received 2005 Best Post-doctoral Research Paper Award, from Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at University of Pittsburgh (2005) Learn more...

Michael Perlin—An internationally-recognized expert on mental disability law, Michael L. Perlin has devoted his career to championing legal rights for people with mental disabilities. A prolific author of 20 books and nearly 200 scholarly articles on all aspects of mental disability law, Professor Perlin says that his ninth book, The Hidden Prejudice: Mental Disability on Trial (2000), “represents my lifetime work.” Learn more...

Mark Starford is the founding director and key consultant of The SCILS Group 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...

Steven Brown, Ph.D., Project Coordinator and Associate Professor, Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, also teaches in the graduate, interdisciplinary Certificate Program in Disability and Diversity Studies. Dr. Brown, whose education is primarily in history, is affiliated graduate faculty with the Department of Political Science and the MCH-LEND program. Learn more...

Nancy Aleck has served as Executive Director of Hawaii People’s Fund since 2003. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Ethnomusicology and a Masters in Education from the University of Hawai‘i. She has an active, 30+ year history of volunteerism for social justice and community development.

Silvia Yee was Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund’s (DREDF) first International Law Fellow and currently works as a senior staff attorney, where her work encompasses domestic litigation and policy areas, as well as special projects involving human rights, international law, and intersections between environmental justice and disability rights. Learn more...

Paul Brown is a Programme Advisor—disability at Auckland Council in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Paul has held this position since July 2011. Along with other Disability Advisors Paul facilitates disability programmes on Active Citizenship, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), employment, accessible libraries, accessible communications, the physical environment and research. Learn more...

Susan Sygall is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of international exchange, international development and leadership training for people with disabilities. She is the CEO and co-founder of Mobility International USA (MIUSA), a national nonprofit organization, which empowers people with disabilities around the world to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development. Learn more...

Emilia Della Torre is an international human rights lawyer from Australia. She is currently engaged by the national NGO, Women with Disabilites ACT, to advcoate systemic reform and policy development by and for women and girls with disabilities. Emilia has worked in international human rights for over twenty years in a number of capacities. These include her work in United Nations human rights treaty body complaints litigation; as legal advisor for Australian Government delegations to CEDAW and CSW; her involvement with various NGOs including BODHI to alleviate the plight of Jumma peoples of Banglasdesh, and the International Commission of Jurists to scope the establishment of a War Crimes Tribunal in East Timor. Learn more...

Martine Abel-Williamson emigrated from South Africa 16 years ago and resident in New Zealand. She is the Programme Disability Adviser and works at Auckland Council, the largest local government agency in New Zealand and possibly in Australasia. Learn more...

Registration and Call for Propoals

• Registration Form [Doc Format | Fillable-PDF Format]
• Call for Proposals [Doc Format | Fillable-PDF Format]

 

For more information, please contact Robert Stodden at stodden@hawaii.edu or Charmaine Crockett at cccrocke@hawaii.edu.

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