The Convention on the Rights of Persons w/ Disabilities & the Global South
When:
Monday, Mar 28, 2022 12:45p -
2:00p
Monday, Mar 28, 2022 12:45p -
2:00p
Where:
Boston University School of Law
765 Commonwealth Ave: Barristers Hall
Boston, MA 02215
Admission:
FREE
Categories:
Lectures & Conferences, University
The Pike Lecture featuring Professor Michael Ashley Stein, Executive Director, Harvard Law School Project on Disability.
About this event:
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Global South
The Pike Lecture featuring Professor Michael Ashley Stein
Executive Director, Harvard Law School Project on Disability
Please note, this lecture will be in person, and also on Zoom.
About the lecture:
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has created a paradigm shift by compelling disability-based human rights as an equal component of the human rights cannon within United Nations programming on human rights and development, as well as national-level legal systems. Paramount to these advances, and beginning with the aphorism of the global disability rights movement—“nothing about us without us”—a “participatory dynamic” influenced a dramatic change in UN human rights norms. Yet, despite the CRPD’s many successes, the treaty has yet to be as influential as it ought to be for 80% of the world’s more than one billion disabled people living in the Global South (or, developing world) relative to those living in the Global North (or, developed world). Historically, there has been sustained criticism that the international human rights regime, which was initiated and drafted by developed states, has limited salience for people living in developing states. The CRPD’s evolution reveals a more nuanced narrative. Nevertheless, power imbalances remain, as does the question of how the CRPD’s mandates can be made more responsive to the majority of the globe’s disability population living in the Global South.
About the speaker:
Professor Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School since 2005. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on disability law and policy, Dr Stein participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; works with disabled peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations around the world; actively consults with governments on their disability laws and policies; advises a number of UN bodies and national human rights institutions; and has brought landmark disability rights litigation globally.
Professor Stein has received numerous awards in recognition of his transformative work, including the inaugural Morton E. Ruderman Prize for Inclusion; the inaugural Henry Viscardi Achievement Award; and the ABA Paul G. Hearne Award. His authoritative and path-breaking scholarship has been published worldwide by leading journals and academic presses, and has been supported by fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research, among others. Dr Stein holds an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, is a visiting professor at the Free University of Amsterdam, and teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School (where he became the first known person with a disability to be a member of the Harvard Law Review), and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Professor Stein previously was Professor (and Cabell Professor) at William & Mary Law School, taught at New York University and Stanford law schools, and was appointed by President Obama to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
More information:
Please note that this conversation will be held in person, and also on zoom. We ask that in person attendees show their BU ID card or an official vaccine card, or a digital vaccine passport constituting proof of vaccination. All visitors are required to wear a face mask in the law complex in accordance with University policy.
Boston University strives to be accessible, inclusive and diverse in our facilities, programming and academic offerings. Your experience in this event is important to us. If you have a disability (including but not limited to learning or attention, mental health, concussion, vision, mobility, hearing, physical or other health related), require communication access services for the deaf or hard of hearing, or believe that you require a reasonable accommodation for another reason please contact Elizabeth Clancey ([email protected]) by March 15th, to discuss your needs.
