Disability rights

WASHINGTON

U.N. Disabilities Treaty Rejected by U.S. Senate

Underlining the persistent power of their party’s most right-wing elements, a majority of Republican senators Tuesday blocked ratification of the long-pending International Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD).

CENTRAL ASIA: Disabled Citizens Find Avenues to Advancement Blocked

By Alisher Khamidov

As a child, Feruza Alimova dreamed of becoming a lawyer so she could help disabled people.

Participants on the first day of the Fifth Session on the Conference of States Parties to the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, hosted by the U.N. Sep. 12-14, 2012. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Involuntary Sterilisation Threatens Rights of Disabled Women

By Malgorzata Stawecka

In 1996, Maria Mamerita Mestanza Chavez, a 33-year-old Peruvian mother of seven, was threatened with imprisonment if she did not comply with the government policy of undergoing sterilisation. After suffering post-operative complications for which she was refused treatment, Chavez died nine days later.