Organisations

Children with Disability Australia (CDA)

Australia

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PO Box 172
Clifton Hill
Victoria, 3058

Children with Disability Australia (CDA) is the national peak body that represents children and young people with disability aged 0-25. CDA is a not for profit, community based organisation and has a national membership of 5000 with the majority being families.

CDA’s vision is that children and young people with disability living in Australia are afforded every opportunity to thrive, achieve their potential and that their rights and interests as individuals, members of a family and their community are met.

CDA works at the national level to progress opportunities and inclusion of all children and young people with disability living in Australia. It works to achieve these aims by:

• Educating national public policy-makers and the broader community about the needs of children and young people with disability.

• Representing children and young people with disability to ensure the best possible support and services are available from government and the community.

• Informing children and young people with disability, families and care givers about their rights and entitlements to services and support.

• Celebrating the successes and achievements of children and young people with disability.

Autistic Minority International

Switzerland

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Autistic Minority International
1200 Geneva

Autistic Minority International is the first and only autism self-advocacy organization active at the global political level. The NGO, founded as a non-profit association under Swiss law in 2013 and headquartered in Geneva, aims to advance the interests of autistics worldwide at and through the United Nations, World Health Organization, human rights treaty bodies, and other international organizations.

We believe that autistic self-advocacy is about more than disability rights. Estimated at one percent of the world's population, or seventy million people, autistics deserve the same protection and rights the international community affords to ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities as well as indigenous peoples. There is an autistic minority in every country on Earth. Only minority status will put an end to discrimination and marginalization and permit all of us to be open about our condition without fear of repercussions. Autism is a distinct culture and identity. The only one we know.

For that reason, we seek to network autism self-advocacy organizations worldwide and act as a focal point for capacity building and the exchange of best practice on how to engage governments at the national, regional, and local level. We promote and assist in the participation of national and local self-advocacy groups at UN conferences and in UN processes and mechanisms. Where no effective national self-advocacy organizations exist, we will establish such. We are open to collaboration with UN member states, the UN system, the wider NGO community, autism charities run by non-autistics, researchers particularly in the social sciences and international law, the private sector, and individuals with a view to shaping global priorities and lifting our concerns onto the UN's agenda.