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The Advocacy Center is in the process of establishing its newest
project, focusing on the rights of the disabled. The purpose
of the project is to promote legal reforms in developing countries
where protections for disabled persons are weak, not enforced,
or non-existent. Working with local institutions, universities,
and non-governmental organizations involved in disability rights
advocacy, the International Human Rights Advocacy Center seeks
to persuade governments to enact or strengthen protections
for disabled persons, consistent with international norms.
In addition, the project explores and emphasizes the universal
importance of individual freedom, equality, and dignity; and
the ability and obligation of people in the privileged United
States to enhance the lives of people in less advantaged parts
of the world.
Capitalizing on the success experienced in the U.S. over the past
half century in bringing about legal reform through organized advocacy,
the Center seeks to replicate this experience with respect to disability
rights in the countries selected for this initiative. Students
of the Denver University Law School and Graduate School of International
Studies working in the Disability Rights Project conduct research
and write detailed Advocacy Reports concerning the status of disabled
persons in selected countries in Latin America, Africa, Eastern
Europe and Central Asia. These Reports include:
- an analysis of the Constitutional and legislative protections
afforded to disabled persons in the selected countries;
- relevant international treaties to which those countries are
a party;
- recommendations as to appropriate remedial action (e.g., proposing
new legislation and/or enforcement of existing law) that can
be taken.
Based on these Advocacy Reports, the Center chooses countries
in which to implement law reform initiatives. Thus far, students
have completed reports on the plight of people with mental disabilities
in Nicaragua and Armenia, and those in South Korea with both physical
and mental disabilities.
The Center attempts to partner in a selected country
with a local organization engaged in disability rights advocacy
in a collaborative effort to illuminate and ameliorate the plight
of disabled persons in that country and inadequacies in available
legal protections. For this purpose students may work with local
educational institutions, such as law school legal aid clinics,
to implement the initiative and to develop a cadre of young professionals
who are sensitized to public service and the need to serve the
marginalized, including in particular those with disabilities.
In countries where legislative protections for disabled persons
do exist, the Center, working with a local partner organization,
will try to bring cases before domestic courts or appropriate international
human rights tribunals to enforce those rights. The Center thereby
seeks to advance the rule of law in the emerging field of "disability
rights" by establishing an expanding body of case law crystallizing
these rights at both the domestic and international level.
Currently, the Project is focusing its efforts
in collaboration with Kenyan non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
to establish a “disability rights” legal aid clinic
in Nairobi to advocate for Kenyans and refugees with disabilities.
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