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This accessibility guide details the different provisions made by the UN Human Rights Council to provide people with disabilities the necessary scope to participate fully and equally in the Council sessions. The guide has two sections: preparing to attend a Council session and accessibility in the Palais de Nations

This report is Human Rights Watch’s 24th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarises key humanitarian rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events through November 2013. It presents extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watch undertook in close partnership with human rights activists on the ground.  The report is divided into three main parts: an essay section, photo essays, and country-specific chapters

This report presents key findings on the evidence from research studies on violence against women with disabilities (WWD) and evidence from interventions to prevent violence.  Despite the greater vulnerability of WWD to gender-based violence (GBV), this report recognises that more research and innovation is needed to develop effective responses, including the identification of risk factors, especially in low-middle income settings. It notes the absence of publications on GBV against WWD, the lack of rigour and demonstrable effectiveness of interventions so far and presents key lessons learned and conclusions. This resource is useful for anyone interested in prevention of violence against women and girls with disabilities

This UN report sets out the proposed 17 Sustainable Development Goals and accompanying targets, developed for consideration and appropriate action by the General Assembly at its 68th session. These goals were developed by the Open Working on Sustainable Development Goals as a result of the mandate set out in the Rio+20 outcome document

Note: Open Working Group of the General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals is issued as document A/68/970

This brochure provides important information and guidance for service providers and policy makers to ensure disabled/Deaf women who are affected by violence can access appropriate support and protection when needed. The brochure includes recommendations for women’s support services, disabled people’s organisations and policy makers, based on a comparative project. It also lists contact information of various women’s, disability, and women’s disability groups in the UK

“This literature review concerns the achievements of a project which started in 2014 and will last three years. The aim of this project is the dissemination and promotion of applied research results and disability to researchers and field stakeholders of the African continent (particularly to Disabled People Organizations), in order to increase knowledge on the situation of people with disabilities and the recommendations made to improve their social participation… The mapping of applied research in West African countries shows the exclusion related to the environment, which lacks the school, health, and sports infrastructure required to promote their [people with disabilities] rights. We will mainly deal with the issue of exclusion and its multidimensional aspect in West Africa, as well as the institutional efforts to set up development plans for people with disabilities in these regions”

This first publication in our series on disability inclusive development covers key facts and figures on the situation of women, men, girls and boys with disabilities living in lowincome countries and presents the reasons why development and humanitarian actions must be disability-inclusive. •

Chapter 1 introduces the key concepts in disability-inclusive development and reflects also on CBM’s own journey towards disability-inclusive development.

Chapter 2 highlights why the inclusion of women, men, girls and boys with disabilities is important for effective development and humanitarian outcomes.  

Chapter 3 sets out why the human rights of women, men, girls and boys with disabilities are closely associated with development both at home and in international cooperation.

Chapter 4 highlights the key issues which cause barriers to disability-inclusive development, and provides a set of principles, case studies and good practice examples of how it can be achieved.  

Chapter 5 concludes with some key messages and introduces the topics that we will address in future publications in this series.

In an attempt to address inequalities and inequities in mental health provision in low and middle-income countries the WHO commenced the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) in 2008. Four years on from the commencement of this programme of work, the WHO has recently adopted the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020. This article will critically appraise the strategic direction that the WHO has adopted to address mental health difficulties across the globe. This will include a consideration of the role that the biomedical model of mental health difficulties has had on global strategy. Concerns will be raised that an over-reliance on scaling up medical resources has led to a strengthening of psychiatric hospital-based care, and insufficient emphasis being placed on social and cultural determinants of human distress. We also argue that consensus scientific opinion garnered from consortia of psychiatric ‘experts’ drawn mainly from Europe and North America may not have universal relevance or applicability, and may have served to silence and subjugate local experience and expertise across the globe. In light of the criticisms that have been made of the research that has been conducted into understanding mental health problems in the global south, the article also explores ways in which the evidence-base can be made more relevant and more valid. An important issue that will be highlighted is the apparent lack of reciprocity that exists in the impetus for change in how mental health problems are understood and addressed in low and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. Whereas there is much focus on the need for change in low and middle-income countries, there is comparatively little critical reflection on practices in high-income countries in the global mental health discourse. We advocate for the development of mental health services that are sensitive to the socio-cultural context in which the services are applied. Despite the appeal of global strategies to promote mental health, it may be that very local solutions are required. The article concludes with some reflections on the strategic objectives identified in the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 and how this work can be progressed in the future.

Disability and the Global South, 2014, Vol. 1 No. 2

This video highlights some of the challenges faced by deaf children and young people, and the opportunities sign language education offers them