Huffington Post: voices to be heard, in harmony

Shantha Rau Barriga, a researcher and advocate for disability rights for Human Rights Watch, wrote this interesting piece on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), for the Huffington Post:

The documentary film, Music by Prudence, tells the story of a young Zimbabwean woman born with a congenital disease that twisted her body and led to the amputation of her legs. Prudence Mabhena was abandoned by her family and shunned by her community, yet through music, she found a way to share her story and advocate for change. In February, the film won an Oscar and Prudence became a national hero.

It would be nice to say that Prudence’s story provides a human face for persons with disabilities, a majority of whom – over 80 percent of the world’s 680 million or more persons with disabilities – live in developing nations. Certainly, the challenges faced by Prudence — stigma and discrimination, abandonment, barriers to education and health care – are often faced by persons with disabilities worldwide and are made even more difficult in impoverished countries that lack infrastructure and many services. Unfortunately her triumph is uncommon. Read more…

Tags | Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, Human Rights Watch, Shantha Rau Barriga