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Autism spectrum disorders

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION
April 2017

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This fact sheet provides key facts and an overview about autism spectrum disorders. Associated epidemiology, causes, assessment and management, social and economic impacts are briefly covered. The human rights of people with ASD are discussed and the WHO Resolution on autism spectrum disorders (WHA67.8) is introduced.

Able to include

INCLUSION EUROPE
February 2017

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"The ABLE TO INCLUDE solution improves the quality of life of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) and similar conditions such as people affected by dementia or any kind of cognitive impairment. To achieve this, the project integrates a set of already-developed technologies to create a context-aware accessibility layer that, by being integrated with existing and future ICT tools, can improve the day-to-day life of people with IDD by understanding their surroundings and helping them to interact with the information society. The project focuses on the most important areas that a person needs to live independently and find fulfilment as an individual: to socialize in the context of the web 2.0, to travel independently and be able to work.

Three key technologies are used as a framework to develop everyday tasks:

Text and content simplifier
A pictogram-to-text, text-to-pictogram and pictogram-pictogram translation tool
Text-to-speech functionalities

These technologies are utilised to create an accessibility layer for people with IDD in everyday tasks within the framework of the information society. The accessibility layer is accessed through an open and free API that foster the introduction of an assistive technologies layer for people with IDD in any software development."

Greece: Refugees with Disabilities Overlooked, Underserved

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
January 2017

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Refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants with disabilities are not properly identified and do not enjoy equal access to services in reception centres in Greece.  On the basis of research carried out in mainland Greece and on the Greek islands in October 2016 and January 2017, and follow-up phone interviews in December 2016 and January 2017, Human Rights Watch found that asylum seekers and refugees with disabilities are not properly identified in Greece, in part because of a rushed registration process and the need for better guidance for staff. Without an adequate understanding of the scale and needs, aid agencies cannot respond effectively. Problems with equal access to water and sanitation services, food distribution, shelter, and health care including mental health and psychosocial support are reported.

Mental health and human rights : Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
January 2017

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"The present report, mandated by the Human Rights Council in resolution 32/18, identifies some of the major challenges faced by users of mental health services, persons with mental health conditions and persons with psychosocial disabilities. These include stigma and discrimination, violations of economic, social and other rights and the denial of autonomy and legal capacity.

In the report, the High Commissioner recommends a number of policy shifts, which would support the full realisation of the human rights of those populations, such as the systematic inclusion of human rights in policy and the recognition of the individual’s autonomy, agency and dignity. Such changes cover measures to improve the quality of mental health service delivery, to put an end to involuntary treatment and institutionalisation and to create a legal and policy environment that is conducive to the realisation of the human rights of persons with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities"

A/HRC/34/32

Human Rights Council, Thirty-fourth session, 27 February-24 March 2017

Inclusive disaster risk reduction

LAFRENIERE, Annie
WALBAUM, Veronique
2017

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This policy paper defines the themes of inclusive disaster risk reduction and explains how these activities fit into the HI mandate. It also identifies the target population and defines modalities of intervention–standard expected outcomes, standard activities–as well as monitoring and evaluation indicators.

Virtual knowledge center to end violence against women and girls

UNITED NATIONS ENTITY FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN
2017

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This Knowledge Centre is designed to serve the needs of policymakers, programme implementers and other practitioners dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. It's primary purpose is to encourage and support evidence-based programming to more efficiently and effectively design, implement, monitor and evaluate initiatives to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. To achieve this, the Global Virtual Knowledge Centre offers a ‘one stop’ service to users by making available the leading tools and evidence on what works to address violence against women and girls. It draws on expert recommendations, policy and programme evaluations and assessments, and fundamentally, on practitioners’ experiences from around the world

Gender Equality Glossary

UN WOMEN TRAINING CENTRE
2017

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This online tool provides concepts and definitions with gender perspective structured according to the thematic areas of UN Women. It includes gender concepts as well as international conferences, agendas, initiatives and partnerships related to gender equality.

Equal measures 2030: Policymakers survey

EQUAL MEASURES 2030
2017

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This report gives interim findings from results of a survey of 109 policymakers in five countries (Indonesia, India, Kenya, Senegal and Colombia), and seeks to shed light on:

  • How do policymakers perceive progress on gender equality in their countries?
  • What most needs to change in order to improve gender equality?
  • What data and evidence do they rely on to make their decisions?
  • How confident are they in their understanding of the major challenges affecting girls and women in their countries?

 

These findings will contribute to debates about data-driven decision making on gender equality, and raise attention to the gaps in accessible, reliable and relevant data and evidence needed to reach the SDGs by 2030.

Rehabilitation in health systems

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2017

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This document provides evidence-based, expert-informed recommendations and good practice statements to support health systems and stakeholders in strengthening and extending high-quality rehabilitation services so that they can better respond to the needs of populations. The recommendations are intended for government leaders and health policy-makers and are also relevant for sectors such as workforce and training. The recommendations and good practice statements may also be useful for people involved in rehabilitation research, service delivery, financing and assistive products, including professional organisations, academic institutions, civil society and nongovernmental and international organisations. The recommendations focus solely on rehabilitation in the context of health systems. They address the elements of service delivery and financing specifically. The recommendations were developed according to standard WHO procedures, detailed in the WHO handbook for guideline development

10th anniversary of the adoption of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) - UNDESA

UNDESA
December 2016

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This page was set-up on UNDESA webpage to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Convention. It adresses the following issues:

- Background
- Events to commemorate CRPD+10 around the world
- Highlights of the 10 years since the adoption of the CRPD
- Main CRPD page
- CRPD 10 Anniversary Note (UN CRPD Secretariat, DSPD/DESA)
- Celebrating 10 Years of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (OHCHR)
- Call for submissions on inclusive development for persons with disabilities and the realization of their human rights

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities (theme: access to rights-based support for persons with disabilities)

DEVANDAS, Catalina
December 2016

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In her report, the Special Rapporteur provides an overview of the activities undertaken in 2016, as well as a thematic study on access to support by persons with disabilities. The study includes guidance for States on how to ensure the provision of different forms of rights-based support and assistance for persons with disabilities, in consultation with them. In preparing the study, the Special Rapporteur convened a regional expert consultation in Addis Ababa in September 2016 and analysed the responses to a questionnaire sent to Member States, national human rights institutions, agencies of the United Nations system, civil society organisations and persons with disabilities and their representative organisations. As at 5 December 2016, she had received 114 responses. 

Mainstreaming disability in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

United Nations Secretariat, Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
November 2016

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"The present report has been prepared in response to Economic and Social Council resolution 2015/4, in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Commission for Social Development, at its fifty-fifth session, a report on the implementation of that resolution, including the Chair’s summary of the discussions and the proposals made during the multi-stakeholder panel discussion on disability at the Commission’s fifty-fourth session. The report provides an overview of the inclusion of disability in existing international development frameworks, as well as of the status of persons with disabilities in social and economic development. It notes that, worldwide, persons with disabilities are still at a disadvantage in many aspects of their participation in development processes, mechanisms and institutions. The report presents the information concerning: (a) the review and follow-up mechanisms of relevant international frameworks on disability-inclusive development; (b) the role of the Commission for Social Development in mainstreaming disability in the development agenda; (c) summary of the multi-stakeholder panel discussion on disability held at the fifty-fourth session of the Commission for Social Development; and (d) conclusions and recommendations"

End the cycle

CHRISTOFFEL BLINDENMISSION (CBM) AUSTRALIA
October 2016

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End the Cycle is a community awareness initiative promoting the human rights and empowerment of people with disabilities living in the world’s poorest countries. This website provides background information about the cycle of poverty and disability, highlights personal stories, and provides links to useful publications and related resources. Details are also provided about how to get involved with the initiative

Problem Management Plus (PM+) Individual psychological help for adults impaired by distress in communities exposed to adversity

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
2016

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With this manual, the World Health Organization (WHO) is responding to requests from colleagues around the world who seek guidance on psychological interventions for people exposed to adversity.

The manual describes a scalable psychological intervention called Problem Management Plus (PM+) for adults impaired by distress in communities who are exposed to adversity. Aspects of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) have been changed to make them feasible in communities that do not have many specialists. To ensure maximum use, the intervention is developed in such a way that it can help people with depression, anxiety and stress, whether or not exposure to adversity has caused these problems. It can be applied to improve aspects of mental health and psychosocial well-being no matter how severe people’s problems are.

Dignity in mental health : Psychology & mental health first aid for all

WORLD FEDERATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH (WFMH)
October 2016

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‘Dignity in Mental Health-Psychological & Mental Health First Aid for All’ is designed to enable us to contribute to the goal of taking mental health out of the shadows so that people in general feel more confident in tackling the stigma, isolation and discrimination that continues to plague people with mental health conditions, their families and carers. Key messages concerning Mental Health First Aid include: all members of the public can learn basic skills to help people with mental health problems; we need to aim to have large numbers of people trained throughout the world to be able to provide mental health first aid; parity is needed with the provision of physical first aid.

Costing equity: The case for disability-responsive education financing

MYERS, Juliette
October 2016

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This report contributes to the global discourse on education finance by providing a disability perspective on donor and government investment into inclusive education. The report looks at the benefits of financing disability - inclusive education, the current state of education financing with regard to inclusion, and what needs to change in order for education financing to effectively support the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). Representatives of nine leading bilateral and multilateral education donors were surveyed on their agencies’ efforts towards disability inclusive education: DFAT (Australia), DFID (UK), European Union, GIZ (Germany), Global Partnership for Education, Norad (Norway), UNICEF, USAID (USA), and World Bank

OPERA

Center for Economic and Social Rights
July 2016

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CESR has developed a simple, yet comprehensive four-step framework to analyze various aspects of the obligation to fulfill economic and social rights. Adopting the acronym OPERA, the framework incorporates different measures for specific human rights principles and standards,by framing them around four levels of analysis: Outcomes, Policy Efforts, Resources and Assessment.

A guiding lens for CESR's national enforcement work, the OPERA framework allows an assessment that triangulates outcomes, policies and resources to provide a much fuller picture of what a state is doing to promote the realization of specific rights. Importantly, it traces economic and social deprivations and disparities back to the actions or omissions of the state, to make the case that they constitute an injustice and a violation of human rights.

OPERA framework

July 2016

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"A guiding lens for CESR's national enforcement work, the OPERA framework allows an assessment that triangulates outcomes, policies and resources to provide a much fuller picture of what a state is doing to promote the realization of specific rights. Importantly, it traces economic and social deprivations and disparities back to the actions or omissions of the state, to make the case that they constitute an injustice and a violation of human rights."

Major Groups and Other Stakeholders discussion papers to the HLPF 2016

July 2016

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The present document is a compilation of the written contributions of various major groups and other relevant stakeholders that have autonomously established and maintained effective coordination mechanisms for participation in the high-level political forum on sustainable development, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 67/290, on the theme of the high-level political forum, “Ensuring that no one is left behind”.

 

The document includes the submission to the HLPF Submission by the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities.

 

Priority assistive products list

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
May 2016

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The Priority Assistive Products List (APL) aspires to follow in the footsteps of the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, which creates awareness among the public, mobilises resources and stimulates competition. The Priority Assistive Products List is similarly intended to be a catalyst in promoting access to assistive technology. It is not a restrictive list but aims to provide each Member State with a model from which to develop a National priority assistive products list. 

The List includes hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication aids, spectacles, artificial limbs, pill organizers, memory aids and other essential items for many older people and people with disabilities to be able to live a healthy, productive and dignified life.

The APL is part of the Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE)

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