[blindlaw] Exciting news... American Society for International Law Disability Rights Interest Group

Stephanie Ortoleva womankind at earthlink.net
Mon Mar 21 18:05:19 UTC 2011


Please share with your networks and apologies for cross-posting!

Dear colleagues,
I am thrilled to announce that the American Society for International 
Law has established
the International Disability Rights Interest Group (IDRIG.)  This 
exciting new ASIL
interest group joins numerous other long-standing interest groups at 
ASIL and will
be co-chaired in this inaugural phase by Hope Lewis, a professor at 
Northeastern
School of Law (
h.lewis at neu.edu
) and Stephanie Ortoleva (
stephanieortoleva at gmail.com
).  The other Executive Committee members are Janet E. Lord, Senior 
Partner, BlueLaw
LLP  and Michael Waterstone, Associate Dean for Research and Academic 
Centers, Loyola
Law School of Los Angeles.
The IDRIG will have its first strategy and planning meeting at the 
annual ASIL Conference
in Washington DC on Friday, March 25 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in the 
Roosevelt room at
the Ritz Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd Street, N.W., Washington 
D.C.  Please join us as
we plan our strategy and activities for the forthcoming year.  Even 
if you cannot
attend this first meeting, please join the interest group so you can 
be part of our
exciting work.
Go to:
http://www.asil.org/interest-groups-view.cfm?groupid=63
  for more information on the International Disability Rights 
Interest Group.  The
interest group is described as follows:
The American Society of International Law International Disability 
Rights Interest
Group (IDRIG) focuses on disability rights as this issue moves from 
the margins of
international human rights law and policy to occupy a prominent place 
in the global
human rights system with the adoption of the United Nations 
Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  The CRPD is moving in the 
direction of universal
signature and already has nearly 100 ratifications, signaling the 
importance of the
treaty to more than 650 million persons with disabilities 
worldwide.  The CRPD has
prompted an unprecedented pace of law reform worldwide and the 
establishment of an
Inter-Agency mechanism to ensure disability inclusion across the 
United Nations system.
It is also markedly shaping the human rights agendas of mainstream 
human rights organizations
as well as international development agencies.  The IDRIG works to 
promote awareness
of disability rights as a cross-cutting issue in international law, 
sponsoring panels
and other events at ASIL.  Through an online discussion forum, DRIG 
provides information
on recent developments in the field, an opportunity for networking 
among the rapidly
growing numbers of international disability rights academics, 
practitioners, and
advocates, discussing issues and recent developments in the field, 
sharing and collaborating
on research, and furthering the inclusion of persons with 
disabilities in the work
of ASIL.  IDRIG also supports, encourages, and provides leadership 
opportunities
to law students and emerging young lawyers in the growing 
field.  Finally, and crucially,
IDRIG advances the diversity of ASIL membership and facilitates the 
accessibility
of ASIL to international lawyers with disabilities.
Please come to this first meeting, share your ideas and be part of 
this opportunity
to advance disability rights internationally.  As you can see from 
the above description,
we have much work to do!  If you are not already an ASIL member, 
information on joining
ASIL can be found at:
http://www.asil.org/membership-become-a-member.cfm
.
Contact Stephanie Ortoleva or Hope Lewis with any questions and we 
look forward to
seeing you on the 25th!
Stephanie and Hope
Stephanie Ortoleva, Esq.
Senior Human Rights Legal Advisor, BlueLaw International, LLP
Visiting Scholar, University of Hawaii, Spring 2011
202.359.3045
stephanieortoleva at gmail.com





More information about the BlindLaw mailing list