Pac Rim 2009 Info
Noted Speakers: Loretta Ross
Polly Arango | Fernando Cruz | Frank De Lima | Frank DeRuyter | Katharina Heyer | Cinda and Linea Johnson | David Johnson | Robert Mcruer | Leolinda Parlin | Tanya and Michelle Ponich | Joseph Ray | Suzanne Robinson | Loretta Ross | Dr. Neil Scott | Howard C. Shane | Charlotte Smith | Bethany Stevens | Damon Terzaghi | Amy Wilson
Tuesday May 5th, 2009: 9:00 AM -10:00 AM in Room 307B, on topic of Disability Rights and Girls and Women
“Bringing Human Rights Intersections into the Movement for Gender Equality, Disability Rights, and Justice”
This presentation will present opportunities and challenges for centering demands for gender equality and disability rights within the human rights framework. It will also address how to deal with skeptics and naysayers who question the effectiveness of a rights-based approach to these issues. The presentation will provide an overview of the basics of the human rights framework, discuss the human rights of people with disabilities – especially reproductive and sexual rights – and problematize the framework to help address critics (both governmental and non-governmental) who do not support a rights-based approach for people with disabilities. It will also discuss the particular needs of women with disabilities and the conversations within the reproductive justice and environmental justice movement about having “normal” children and the challenges the desire for “normal” children pose for people with disabilities.
Biography: Loretta Ross
Loretta J. Ross is the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, a network founded in 1997 of 80 women of color and allied organizations that work on reproductive justice issues. In 2004, Ms. Ross was National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants. She lectures frequently on human rights, women’s rights, hate groups and right wing organizations. . She is a political commentator for Pacifica News Service, and has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, and BET. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 from Arcadia University. She is presently enrolled in the Women’s Studies PhD program at Emory University in Atlanta. Ms. Ross is presently writing a book on reproductive rights entitled Black Abortion. Ms. Ross’ papers are currently housed and accessible in the archives of The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
