RI Headlines
- Australian Michael Fox elected RI President.
- New Executive Committee members.
- Highlights from the RI Congress in Oslo.
- Summary of presentations made at the Congress.
- Lex Frieden awarded honorary doctorate.
RI Elects Leading Australian Architect as President, 2004-2008
The culminating event of the 2004 annual meeting of the RI Governing Assembly in Oslo was election of a new Executive Committee for the next four years. Michael Fox of Australia, a leading architect specializing in accessible environments, and Chair of RI's Commission on Technology and Accessibility (ICTA) for the last eight years, was selected to lead the organization.
In an interview just following his election, Mr. Fox described his platform of renewed energies on "focus, membership and funding." He stated that: "RI should become more of a networking organization for exchanging ideas and experiences, with greater resources directed to the less developed countries." He stressed that "we should capitalize on our knowledge base and involve our members more strongly in the organization. As terminology changes over time, the word 'rehabilitation' has different meanings in different parts of the world and 'RI' should become more of a brand, like IBM. " In his address to the Oslo Congress on the closing day, Fox emphasized that "we will continue to champion the UN Convention, particularly as RI is in transition from a welfare-oriented organization to a rights-based one."
Fox is the third Australian elected as RI President in the 82-year history of the organization, following Sir Kenneth Coles in 1957 and Kenneth Jenkins in 1976. He succeeds Lex Frieden of the U.S., who will now serve on the Executive Committee as Past President.
Disability Leaders from 15 Countries Elected to RI Board
The Oslo Assembly then proceeded to elect the following 19 candidates from 15 countries to the posts of Treasurer, Vice Presidents, Deputy Vice Presidents and Chairpersons of Commissions, comprising the RI Executive Committee or board for the period 2004-2008:
Treasurer: Kenneth Aitchison of the U.S., just retired from his executive responsibilities with the well-known Kessler Rehabilitation Institute of New Jersey;
Africa Region
Vice President: Mr. Gidion Mandesi of Tanzania's Disability Organization of Legal Affairs and Economic Development;
Deputy Vice President: Ms. Sebenzile Matsebula, Director, Office on the Status of Disabled Persons, South Africa;
Arab Region
Vice President: Mr. Khaled El Mohtar, Director, the National Rehabilitation & Development Center, Lebanon;
Deputy Vice President: Muhktar bin Mohammed AlRawahi, President, Oman Association of the Disabled;
Asia Pacific Region
Vice President: Prof. Nareewan Chintakanond, National Council of Social Welfare, Thailand;
Deputy Vice President: Mr. Benny Cheung of the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation;
European Region
Vice President: Ms. Heidi Lindberg of the National Association of the Disabled, Finland;
Deputy Vice President: Dr. Jiri Votava of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Charles University, Czech Republic;
Latin American Region
Vice President: Mr. Victor Hugo Flores of the Mexican National Consultancy for Integration of People with Disabilities;
Deputy Vice President: Dr. Geraldo Nogueira, lawyer, Brazil;
North American Region
Vice President: Ms. Marca Bristo, Executive Director, Access Living of Chicago, USA;
Deputy Vice President: Mr. Max Beck, Executive Director, Easter Seals/March of Dimes, Canada;
Commission Chairs
Education Commission: Ms. Penny Price, Consultant on Disability Rights, Development & Education, Australia;
ICTA Commission: Ms. Betty Dion, President of Betty Dion Enterprises, Canada;
Commission on Health and Function: Dr. Martin Grabois, Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine, USA;
Commission on Policy and Services (formerly Organization & Administration): Mr. Mark Webber, attorney, South Africa;
Social Commission: Ms. Anne Hawker, Disabled Persons Assembly, New Zealand;
Commission on Work and Employment: Mr. Ray Fletcher, Executive Director of Remploy, U.K.
The 21-member Executive Committee is the largest in recent RI history, made possible by the decision by the 2003 Assembly in Durban to add the Commission Chairs as voting members.
Congress Highlights
- Congress opened by Norway's newly appointed "superminister" for both Labor & Social Affairs, Dagfinn Hoybraten, who stressed Norway's commitment to working on the international level to strengthen human rights for people with disabilities;
- More than 1000 participants arrived from 74 countries;
- Opening ceremony, entitled "Dream," featured an array of theatrical and musical artists, under direction of 26 year old disabled director Kjersti Horn;
- The sight of three Norwegian wheelchair athletes "climbing down City Hall" on the evening of June 21, a warm-up event before the presentation of the musical Jesus Christ, Superstar;
- The packed plenary hall for the 15 keynote speakers from Norway, Uganda, U.K., Ireland, Qatar, Sweden, Philippines, Finland, China, the Dominican Republic and the USA;
- The equally packed, accessible Cybercafe, where participants could try out adapted software or just check email;
- The ebullient and impressive Congress youth project that brought together disabled young people from Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Ireland, Norway, Uganda and the USA for a week of learning and exchange;
- Exhibitions of winning photos, children's art and a two-day videotheque of short disability films from Armenia, Finland, Norway, Russia, UK and the USA; and the
- Quadrennial RI Awards presented during the closing ceremony on June 24, including: Presidential Award to George Wilson of the UK, retiring RI Treasurer, in recognition of his service to the organization since the 1960s; the Fenmore Seton Outstanding Volunteer Award, received by Ralf Hotchkiss, founder of Whirlwind Wheelchair International, for his dedication to innovation in rough-terrain chairs; and three Dr. Henry Kessler Awards for exemplary international work in the disability field presented to Rosangela Berman Bieler, founder of the Inter-American Institute on Disability; Dr. Enrico Pupulin, former Chief Medical Officer and head of the Disability and Rehabilitation Team, World Health Organization; and Dr. Steven Kirshblum, Associate Medical Director of Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. The last awards were presented by Richard Kessler, grandson of Dr. Henry Kessler, world renowned orthopedic physician who served as RI President, 1948-1951.
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A photo contest in connection with the Congress documented the lives of disabled people. Abir Abdullah from Bangladesh took first place with his photo "War victims." |
The RI Oslo Congress Scientific Program: Impressions
The four-day intensive program, June 21-24, was developed around invited plenary presentations and parallel sessions addressing the theme of "Rethinking Rehabilitation" from various points of view. The Congress team, led by President Kirsti Kolle Grondahl and Arne Heimdahl, President of RI Norway, and Ann-Helen Bey, Chair of the Program Committee, reviewed hundreds of abstracts and biographies of suggested speakers. Recently the plenary presentations and abstracts of other presentations have been placed online at the Congress website: www.ri-norway.no/text/view/1802.html.Following is an overview of some key threads, points and flavor of some of the plenary presentations of specialists from Europe, Africa, North America, the Arab region and Asia.
After an uplifting video message in support of disability rights from Ms. Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland, Prof. Tom Shakespeare of the UK Policy, Ethics and Life Science Research Institute, challenged the participants to think through the complexities and contradictions of some of the new genetics policies being advanced in some countries vs. the human rights platforms gaining support from the same governments in the quest for a UN convention on human rights of people with disabilities. Shakespeare also pointed out the discrepancies between the current focus on impairments caused by genetic "misspellings," representing a small portion of the "disability pool," and the global realities, where 30,000 children die each day due to preventable diseases.
Update on Uganda
The situation of disabled people in Uganda was explored by two speakers. Uganda's Minister of State for Elderly & Disability Affairs, Florence Nayiga Sekabira, explained the quota system adopted nationwide to enable election of thousands of people with disabilities to positions on local councils up to the national Parliament. Concerning the role of disabled Parliamentarians, Sekabira outlined several responsibilities: to make laws for effective governing of the Republic of Uganda, to initiate and influence laws and policies in favor of people with disabilities, to mobilize disabled Ugandans for development and to lobby for effective service delivery to people with disabilities. Prof. Susan Reynolds White of the Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, who conducted fieldwork for many years in Uganda and East Africa, recounted an interesting case study of numerous disabled Ugandan entrepreneurs who have obtained tricycles to develop a cross-border service, providing self-sustaining livelihood for themselves and their families, and at the same time creating an effective disability lobbying group on the national level.
Poverty & disability
Other speakers concentrated on the so far intractable problems created by the interface between disability and poverty. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, and, most recently, Director General of the World Health Organization, reviewed how investments in health services were directly attributable to growth in some of the fastest moving economies of Asia. Brundtland emphasized that "The Nobel economics prize laureate Amartya Sens defines poverty as 'deprivation of capability,' arguing that people are poor not just because their income is low, but because they do not have access to basic services such as health and education, which would increase their freedom." She summarized: "A majority of disabled people are among the very poor-living on less than a dollar a day... At least 20% of the poorest people in the world are disabled... Combating poverty implies preventing ill health and disability, and empowering people with disabilities to be full participants of society."
Speakers Judy Heumann, Disability Advisor for the World Bank, and Venus Ilagan, Chair of Disabled People's International, echoed the need for increased and immediate attention to improving data and analysis about the interrelationships between disability and poverty. Ilagan stated: "Disability groups in developing countries lack economic expertise, so they have not yet developed a persuasive case for including disability in development thinking on economic grounds." She believes the discussions about the UN convention could provide unprecedented opportunities to bring this topic to the attention of the highest levels of governments and concluded that: "We are fortunate to live at a time when global leaders in every corner of the world are discussing disability in a way it has not been discussed before."
Challenging participants
Lars Odegaard, chair of Atlas Alliance, the Norwegian umbrella group of domestic disability groups involved in international development work, and officer of the Norwegian Association of the Disabled, a membership-based advocacy group, strongly challenged all present at the Oslo Congress to ask themselves if they had done enough to changes the dire situation of disabled people in developing countries. He commented about receiving various reports in recent years about plans for change from government agencies, disabled people's organizations and non-governmental organizations, all worded in the correct terminology, but he wondered whether any radical changes had occurred in actuality. Odegaard summarized that Norway would continue to take a forward position in international efforts to improve the situation of people with disabilities in poor countries.
Women & Children
Two other speakers honed in on the failure of initiatives thus far to improve the deplorable situation of disabled women and children, left to fend for themselves in many countries. Ms Sheikha Hessa of Qatar, the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, outlined her priorities for the immediate future: disabled children and women, poverty and increasing attention to those disabled by intellectual, developmental and psychological impairments. She reported on a recent meeting of women with disabilities in Yemen, reiterating that isolation was still a significant barrier to their participation in society. Speaking with participants after her presentation, Ms. Sheikha Hessa stated she would support efforts to develop outreach to disabled Arab women as part of the program for RI's Arab regional conference in Bahrain in late 2005.
State Secretary Jan Otto Risebrobakken, representing Norway's Ministry of Health, defined the objectives of rehabilitation: "to provide physical, psychological and social support in order to facilitate integration and participation." He commented that, "One of the greatest challenges of rehabilitation on a global basis is to improve the situation of women and girls with disabilities." One of the new Norwegian projects he announced was a strategic plan developed by the Ministry of Health to provide rehabilitation services for children "to ensure that children with disabilities, like all other children, have a childhood that provides growth and development in everyday life."
Toxic impact of Exclusion
Finally, two speakers delivered heartfelt addresses that placed exclusion at the center of the lived experiences of people with disabilities the world over. Bengt Lindqvist of Sweden, retiring UN disability rapporteur, recalled his first meeting with the UN Human Rights Commission, where he was asked to sum up the disability experience in as few words as possible. After thinking through his visits to various countries, rich and poor, he chose one word: exclusion. "If you study the situation of disabled persons in different cultures, you will find exclusion is always present," Lindqvist said, continuing, "you will come across thousands of ways and degrees of excluding people with disabilities, young and old, from mainstream services and activities in our societies, even in affluent countries. We will only put an end to exclusion by bringing disability related needs into the mainstream of development."
Patricia Deegan, Ph.D., of the U.S., brought the same message home, based on her experiences with psychiatric and mental health services. She described how her early interaction with these services resulted in the exclusion by rehabilitation professionals of all other considerations of her personality, life experiences, skills and aspirations. She recalled, "When I was 17, and still in my final year of high school, I experienced psychosis and was brought to a mental institution. Once there, I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Once diagnosed, the label...took on a master status in terms of my identity. The fact that I was a good athlete, that I enjoyed being in nature, that I was the oldest child from a large working class family, was of little interest to the professionals around me... Rethinking rehabilitation means getting on with the work of reforming the infrastructure of rehabilitation policy and funding so that the self-directed care opportunities are available to all people with disabilities. It is the means through which we can be self-determining. It is the way that those of us with disabilities can exercise our freedom to be incurably ourselves."
In summary, the plenary speakers in the RI Oslo Congress were articulate in what has been achieved on the global level, in pointing out some of the most effective practices, and in reminding us eloquently about priorities that still need to be addressed.
RI Past President Lex Frieden Awarded Honorary Doctorate
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From left to right: Lex Frieden, grandson Trey, wife Joyce, and Dr. O Muircheartaigh. |
NUI Galway is renowned for its research centers of excellence in the areas of human rights and humanities. The honorees were carefully considered and selected for conferring because of their significant contributions to society in the area of human rights or through their scholarly contributions to the area of humanities.
In recognizing the accomplishments and contributions that each individual has made to society during their lifetime, The President of NUI Galway, Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh said:
"Each of these individuals in their own way, has made a significant contribution to society and to altering and enhancing the lives of many. This has been achieved through their work, views, beliefs and unfaltering commitment which has enabled them to achieve personal objectives which have been for the benefit of others. NUI Galway is a university which has long supported ideals which promote research excellence, both in the areas of Human Rights and Historical studies and for this reason, we are proud today to honor the work of all of these individuals."
Lex Frieden, Chairperson of the US National Council on Disability and senior vice-president at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) in Houston, Texas, was instrumental in drafting the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and he is now at the forefront of the new United Nations treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities. Roy Foster is Carroll Professor of Irish history at Oxford University and has a highly distinguished record in historical scholarship.
Judge Philippe Kirsch is the first president of the International Criminal Court. Established in 2003, the creation of the International Criminal Court is perhaps the most important new international organization to be established since the United Nations. John Mannion of St. John's Memorial University, Newfoundland, has made it his life's work to document and study all aspects of the Irish migration to Newfoundland.