About the Disability Rights Working Group
The Disability Rights Working Group (DRWG) is committed to the constant interrogation of our understanding and responses to issues that impact disabled people. The DRWG hosts activities that provide greater awareness of these issues and that foster disability equality.
Upcoming Events
February 16th, 2024 at 12:00 PM (EST)
In armed conflicts and crises, children with disabilities face serious threats to their lives and safety, including those related to their inability to flee attacks, risk of abandonment, lack of access to assistive devices, lack of access to basic services, and denial of education. They also experience stigma, abuse, psychological harm, and poverty. Children with disabilities experience multiple and intersecting forms of human rights violations based on their disability and age. Yet they have largely been left out of international community’s commitment to protect all children impacted by hostilities. Emina Ćerimović will give an overview of Human Rights Watch’s work on children impacted by armed conflict in the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Syria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Speaker
Emina Ćerimović is a lawyer and an associate disability rights director at Human Rights Watch. She leads the organization’s work on the protection of people with disabilities in situations of risk, including armed conflicts, and humanitarian emergencies worldwide. She has investigated human rights violations against children with disabilities in Syria, the lack of inclusive response to refugees with disabilities in Europe and is currently monitoring and reporting on the situation of people with disabilities in the context of Israel and Palestine. Ćerimović has also documented shackling and abuses against people with mental health conditions in Nigeria, the institutionalization of children and adults with disabilities in Croatia and Serbia, and discrimination in access to education for children with disabilities. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Ćerimović worked with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina and with the State Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the prosecution of war crimes committed in Bosnia during the 90s. Ćerimović holds a law degree from the University of Sarajevo and an LLM in Human Rights with a Specialization in EU Law from the Central European University in Budapest. She speaks Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, English, and Swedish.
Past Events
May 30th, 2023
Click here to view the recording
The Climate Change Working Group (in collaboration with the BCCE Disability Rights Working Group, the Climate Litigation Network, McGill University and the International Disability Alliance) hosted a webinar panel discussion on Disability Rights and Climate Litigation. The panel brought together academics, lawyers, activists, and individuals with lived experiences to discuss existing and prospective climate litigation that address the impacts of climate change and climate action on people with disabilities. Our goals for this event were threefold: (1) generate knowledge of key trends, opportunities, and challenges in disability-focused climate litigation; (2) catalyze the development of new disability-focused climate litigation; and (3) identify key principles and best practices for developing disability-focused climate litigation through an anti-oppressive approach.
Who We Are
Co-Directors
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Laverne Jacobs
- (During her service as a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Professor Jacobs will continue to lead and work on academic projects with the Center, but will not be involved in any of our advocacy work.)
- Profile
Laverne Jacobs is a Professor of Law at the University of Windsor in Canada. She researches, writes and teaches actively in the areas of law and disability rights, human rights, and administrative law and justice. Through her research, she explores the lived experiences of people with disabilities in relation to the law. Professor Jacobs has published and lectured widely in Canada and internationally. She is the lead author of several books and articles including the first law and disability textbook in Canada (Law and Disability in Canada (2021)) and the Annotated Accessible Canada Act (2021). Professor Jacobs founded and directs The Law, Disability and Social Change Project, a research and public advocacy initiative housed at Windsor Law that works to foster and develop inclusive communities. She is also a Co-Director of the Disability Rights Working Group of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law.
Outside of the University, Dr. Jacobs has consulted with NGOs and government. She has been invited to serve on the Board of Directors of several organizations, has held public appointments on tribunals, and has testified as an expert before the Senate of Canada on disability issues. Dr. Jacobs has received recognition for her scholarship and leadership on disability equality, including the Touchstone Award from the Canadian Bar Association in 2021.
Dr. Laverne Jacobs was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2022 for the 2023–2026 term.
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Mark Bell
In 2015, Mark Bell was appointed Regius Professor of Laws, a Chair founded in 1668. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. Prior to his appointment at Trinity, he was a professor at the School of Law, University of Leicester, where he was also Head of the School of Law (2011-2014). Mark conducts research in the areas of Equality Law and Employment Law. He is the author of Racism and Equality in the European Union (OUP, 2008) and Anti-Discrimination Law and the European Union (OUP, 2002). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Centre for European Law and the committee of the Employment Law Association of Ireland. In 2017, he organised the annual conference of the Berkeley Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law Study Group. In 2015, he was a Senior Expert on Disability for the European Commission’s Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination. He works regularly with a range of national and European NGOs dealing with equality issues, as well as international organisations. Since 2010, he has been working with the International Labour Organisation on several projects, and played a key role in producing a 2016 guide for employers on promoting diversity through workplace adjustments.
Student Assistants
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Benjamin Coleman
- he/him
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Brittany Postle
- she/her
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Mona Faham
- she/her