NEW PUBLICATION FROM VIKE !
(The Center for Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Finland)
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
– Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Jukka Kumpuvuori and Martin Scheinin (eds.)
Published in late-November 2009!
‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Multidisciplinary Perspectives’ traces the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The book offers a number of fresh approaches to disability studies and disability rights by exploring the lives of persons with disabilities from multiple perspectives. It provides the reader with an insightful reading experience on the contemporary topics of disability studies and disability rights.
The book can be utilized as introductory material for anyone who wants to get familiar with disability rights. The book can well serve as material for disability rights teaching and autonomous individual studies.
Please see the Table of Contents below and place your pre-order via e-mail to jukka.kumpuvuori@abo.fi. The pre-order price for the book is 25 € including the book itself and a fixed delivery cost. This price is available only for pre-orders received before 1 December 2009. Beginning from 1 December 2009, the price of the book will be 30 € (inc. delivery). Form of payment: Invoice delivered with the book.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: UN CRPD – WHY AND WHAT?
Chapter 1: The Special Reaching for the Universal: Why a Special Convention for Persons with Disabilities?
Jarna Petman
Chapter 2: UN CRPD and the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Pentti Arajärvi
PART II: ‘TRADITIONAL’ DISABILITY RIGHTS AND THE UN CRPD
Chapter 3: Treating the Different Ones Differently – a Vehicle for Equality for Persons with Disabilities? Implications of Article 5 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Jukka Kumpuvuori and Martin Scheinin
Chapter 4: The Changing Relationship between Disability and Education
Joel Kivirauma and Matti Laitinen
Chapter 5: Teachers’ and Students’ Awareness of and Attitudes towards the Concept of Inclusion Exemplified in Article 24 of the UN CRPD
Jeyaprathaban Sujathamalini
Chapter 6: The Right to “Decent Work” of Persons with Disabilities: Article 27 of the Convention and the Case of Uganda
Edson Ngirabakunzi and Hisayo Katsui
PART III: PARTICIPATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
Chapter 7: Towards Participation of Persons with Disabilities from the South: Implications of Article 32 of the Convention
Hisayo Katsui
Chapter 8: Barriers to the Inclusion of Disabled People in Disability Policy-Making in Seven African Countries
Raymond Lang and Ambrose Murangira
PART IV: NEW TRENDS IN DISABILITY RIGHTS
Chapter 9: Realizing the Right to Adequate Food for People with Disabilities in Uganda
Emmanuel K. Kanyemibwa
Chapter 10: Achieving Human Security through Political Advocacy: Linking Ugandan and Finnish DPO Advocacy Work to Article 14 of the UN CRPD
Jukka Kumpuvuori and Hisayo Katsui
Chapter 11: Participatory Justice, the UN Disability Human Rights Convention, and the Right to Participate in Sport, Recreation, and Play
Janet E. Lord and Michael Ashley Stein
Chapter 12: Mental Health Law and Human Rights: Evolution, Challenges and the Promise of the New Convention
Michael Perlin and Éva Szeli
Chapter 13: Persons with Deafblindness in Light of International Agreements
Riku Virtanen
Chapter 14: From Devil’s Seed to Disabled God – Disability and the Human Rights Approach on the Bible Studies and Practices of Christian Communities
Amu Urhonen
Chapter 15: Restrictions of Sexual and Reproductive Rights – The Case of Uzbeki Women with Disabilities
Feruza Zagirtdinova
2.10.09
Welcome to Join "Human Rights and Disability" University Course in Finland!!
This is an undergraduate university course (intermediate level) equals to 5 credits. Organiser is the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University (the project members are also lecturers!). It is composed of 18 hours lectures + 4 hours moot court participation.
Place: Educarium (Assistentinkatu 5, Turku), Lecture Room 2. (Exception on 2 December: PharmaCity (Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4 b), Lecture Room 1)
Target Audience: Students of Law, Social Sciences or other related fields. Researchers interested in the theme.
NOTE: Observers outside the academic environment, e.g. staff of organisations of persons with disabilities are warmly welcome to apply for observer-status or full participant status. Please send your 1/2 page letter of interest to jukka.kumpuvuori(at)abo.fi by 18.November the latest. Course materials are not distributed to participants with observer status. Observers will not gain study points for attending the course. Observers are allowed to participate only to lecture sessions of the course.
Registration: Please e-mail to jukka.kumpuvuori(at)abo.fi by 18 November the latest. Please indicate in your e-mail if you have any disability-related or other needs you want to be accommodated during the course.
TIME TABLE OF THE COURSE
16 Handing out the take-home exam (Jukka Kumpuvuori & Edson Ngirabakunzi)
10-12 Equality and Non-Discrimination in the Context of Disability – an International Perspective (Michael Stein)
13-15 Equality and Non-Discrimination in the Context of Disability – the European Community Perspective (Lisa Waddington)
15-16 Round Table on Equality and Non-Discrimination (Lecturers of the Course & Actors of Local Disability Organisations)
Wednesday 2 December
11-16:30 Seminar on Human Rights and Persons with Disabilities in Higher Education (program is available by e-mail.) Organised and sponsored by the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University.
Thursday 3 December
Seminar in Helsinki on Preparation Work of the Finnish Disability Policy (Participation is voluntary. Travel cost is not covered by the course organiser).
13-15 Practical Implications of Human Rights in the Daily Life of a Person with a Disability (Zachary Kaddu and Riku Virtanen)
Monday 7 December
9 E-mail –returns of the take-home exam by 9 a.m.
15 – 18 Preparations for the Moot Court in groups
10-14 Moot Court + Debriefing of the take-home exam
15 Closing the course
[1] Moot Court is an exercise in which participants take part in simulated court proceedings by drafting briefs and participating in oral argumentation.
19.8.09
Hisayo on a radio programme
Hisayo was on a YLE radio programme called "tiedelinko" in the end of July. This series focuses on "young researchers (defined under 35 years old)." I talked about how I came to Finland, what it means to do a research in Southern countries as a young female etc. The interview was held in Finnish. If any of you are interested in listening to it, you can open the following website and choose the programme of 24.7. My interview was about 5-6 minutes somewhere in the middle.
I wish you all a nice start of the academic year!
20.5.09
New Publication
- Kumpuvuori, J. & Katsui, H. (2009) “Disability, Human Rights and Human Security: case study on human rights advocacy activities of organisations of persons with disabilities in Uganda and Finland.” Spanda Foundation Quarterly Newsletter Vol.III.No.1.P.14-20.
If anybody needs a word version of the article, please write to us.
13.5.09
Guest Lecture at Diaconia University of Applied Science
By Hisayo Katsui
My old friend, Marianne Nylund, and her colleague, Jouni Kylmälä, are teaching an intensive course on disability entitled "International Perspective on Disability and Human Rights" at Diaconia University of Applied Science at Järvenpää in April-May. It is great to realise that disability finally started to attract attention in different academic institutions.
Yesterday, I had the great opportunity to give a lecture on participatory research. The students were mainly majoring in Social Work and from different countries (Nepal, Germany, Finland, Chile and Kenya). They were highly motivated and active during the class, and I enjoyed the time very much. Thank you for the students!
I'm going to give another guest lecture on "Human Rights and Disability in Global Context" in two weeks time. I'm looking forward to it.
My old friend, Marianne Nylund, and her colleague, Jouni Kylmälä, are teaching an intensive course on disability entitled "International Perspective on Disability and Human Rights" at Diaconia University of Applied Science at Järvenpää in April-May. It is great to realise that disability finally started to attract attention in different academic institutions.
Yesterday, I had the great opportunity to give a lecture on participatory research. The students were mainly majoring in Social Work and from different countries (Nepal, Germany, Finland, Chile and Kenya). They were highly motivated and active during the class, and I enjoyed the time very much. Thank you for the students!
I'm going to give another guest lecture on "Human Rights and Disability in Global Context" in two weeks time. I'm looking forward to it.
11.5.09
Hisayo in "Accessibility for All at Higher Education" Seminar
By Hisayo Katsui
<--In the picture, Amu Urhonen is talking about the link between education and daily life outside of the education institutions.
on 6-7.5.2009, the seminar was organised in Helsinki. There were 120 participants, most of whom were university staffs, students' associations, and organisations of persons with disabilities from all over Finland. This is part of a project (http://esok.jyu.fi/) funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education between 2006 and 2009 to improve the accessibility (not only physical but also attitudinal/psychological/social ones) of students with disabilities at Finnish higher education institutions.
Some keynote speakers were from Norway, Sweden and UK which have all developed systematic and legal environments to ensure accessibility of their students with disabilities. In those countries, major universities have accessibility/disability coordinators as a focal point and they give general and specific advices both to teachers and students how to make the education accessible. In Sweden, 0.3% of the annual university budget is earmarked for meeting different needs of students with disabilities, while Norway has a National Coordinator for Accessibility in Higher Education established by the Ministry of Education in 2003 as a permanent structure supporting accessibility issues. Both universal design and individual adjustment with reasonable accommodations are argued to be necessary.
On the second day, more down-to-earth accessible teaching methods were introduced in different groups. I attended the ones by Professor Alan Hurst of UK and by Paula Pietilä of Finland who is the disability coordinator at Turku University. It was pointed out that anticipatory duty is important. That means, teachers take a measure to reasonably accommodate students with different impairments even before the students disclose their impairments. For instance, majority of students with disabilities in higher education institutions are those with dyslexia at present. One of their biggest challenges is note taking. To remove this challenge away, teachers can deliver lecture notes beforehand to students. Also, for visually impaired students, teachers can make sure that visual materials are accessible. However, “as inclusive as possible” has some limitation because teachers cannot anticipate and have knowledge on all needs of different individuals. Then, teachers are supposed to encourage students to disclose their impairments to facilitate accessibility arrangement. Agreement of confidentiality or permission of sharing the information with other teachers would be asked at this point.
Amu Urhonen from the students' association made an important link between education and daily life outside of the educational institutions: when the arrangement for living daily lives does not go well (ex. When one does not know who goes shopping tomorrow), the education becomes inaccessible.
Compared with the situations in those countries, our Finnish academic environment is lagging far behind. Accessibility/disability coordinators are situated in only few universities, though the awareness is increasing especially when social aspect has become important in the Bologna Process. In Finland, accessibility is not a priority in many higher education institutions, while each university is responsible for allocating resources for improving the accessibility. Many of the adjustments are made on sporadic terms, and persons with disabilities too frequently have to fight for it or to give up.
This was a timely seminar for our project, too, as we have encountered too many difficulties in our academic lives during the last few years. Our team discussed how to make the perception towards accessibility to an added value for the university rather than costly problems of individuals. We hope and try to influence that accessibility will be part of the quality work that the university ensures and makes efforts on, because it is a good advertisement of the university to even PR when accomplished!Hopefully more policy makers both at national level and at education institution level see this as a great opportunity and exercise their political will and leadership to make a positive change in the near future also in our country.
<--In the picture, Amu Urhonen is talking about the link between education and daily life outside of the education institutions.
on 6-7.5.2009, the seminar was organised in Helsinki. There were 120 participants, most of whom were university staffs, students' associations, and organisations of persons with disabilities from all over Finland. This is part of a project (http://esok.jyu.fi/) funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education between 2006 and 2009 to improve the accessibility (not only physical but also attitudinal/psychological/social ones) of students with disabilities at Finnish higher education institutions.
Some keynote speakers were from Norway, Sweden and UK which have all developed systematic and legal environments to ensure accessibility of their students with disabilities. In those countries, major universities have accessibility/disability coordinators as a focal point and they give general and specific advices both to teachers and students how to make the education accessible. In Sweden, 0.3% of the annual university budget is earmarked for meeting different needs of students with disabilities, while Norway has a National Coordinator for Accessibility in Higher Education established by the Ministry of Education in 2003 as a permanent structure supporting accessibility issues. Both universal design and individual adjustment with reasonable accommodations are argued to be necessary.
On the second day, more down-to-earth accessible teaching methods were introduced in different groups. I attended the ones by Professor Alan Hurst of UK and by Paula Pietilä of Finland who is the disability coordinator at Turku University. It was pointed out that anticipatory duty is important. That means, teachers take a measure to reasonably accommodate students with different impairments even before the students disclose their impairments. For instance, majority of students with disabilities in higher education institutions are those with dyslexia at present. One of their biggest challenges is note taking. To remove this challenge away, teachers can deliver lecture notes beforehand to students. Also, for visually impaired students, teachers can make sure that visual materials are accessible. However, “as inclusive as possible” has some limitation because teachers cannot anticipate and have knowledge on all needs of different individuals. Then, teachers are supposed to encourage students to disclose their impairments to facilitate accessibility arrangement. Agreement of confidentiality or permission of sharing the information with other teachers would be asked at this point.
Amu Urhonen from the students' association made an important link between education and daily life outside of the educational institutions: when the arrangement for living daily lives does not go well (ex. When one does not know who goes shopping tomorrow), the education becomes inaccessible.
Compared with the situations in those countries, our Finnish academic environment is lagging far behind. Accessibility/disability coordinators are situated in only few universities, though the awareness is increasing especially when social aspect has become important in the Bologna Process. In Finland, accessibility is not a priority in many higher education institutions, while each university is responsible for allocating resources for improving the accessibility. Many of the adjustments are made on sporadic terms, and persons with disabilities too frequently have to fight for it or to give up.
This was a timely seminar for our project, too, as we have encountered too many difficulties in our academic lives during the last few years. Our team discussed how to make the perception towards accessibility to an added value for the university rather than costly problems of individuals. We hope and try to influence that accessibility will be part of the quality work that the university ensures and makes efforts on, because it is a good advertisement of the university to even PR when accomplished!Hopefully more policy makers both at national level and at education institution level see this as a great opportunity and exercise their political will and leadership to make a positive change in the near future also in our country.
20.4.09
Project was introduced on TV
On 19.4. the public TV Channel of Finland, YLE, broadcast and introduced our research project in one of its news with sign language interpretation. You can see the news on-line for a while in the YLE homepage: http://areena.yle.fi/hae?pid=811302
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