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IFES Statement on the Defeat of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in the U.S. Senate
A statement by Bill Sweeney, president and CEO of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), regarding the defeat of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in the U.S. Senate on December 4, 2012.
News & Updates
Interview/Speech/Testimony
Nay Lin Soe Remarks: 2016 Charles T. Manatt Democracy Awards Ceremony
Nay Lin Soe, a disability rights advocate and Founder and CEO of the Myanmar Independent Living Initiative, received the 2016 Charles T. Manatt Democracy Award for his work advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities in Myanmar and Southeast Asia. Read his remarks accepting the Democracy Award.
News & Updates
Feature
Post-Election Advocacy Advances Disability Inclusion in Myanmar
During Myanmar’s historic general elections in November 2015, the Myanmar Independent Living Initiative (MILI), a disability rights organization based in Yangon, worked to ensure that the elections were the country’s most accessible and inclusive elections to date for persons with disabilities.
News & Updates
Press Release
IFES Announces International Recipient of 2016 Democracy Awards
IFES will honor Nay Lin Soe, a disability rights advocate and founder and CEO of the Myanmar Independent Living Initiative, with its 2016 Charles T. Manatt Democracy Award. This is the first time that IFES has honored both a disability rights advocate and an Asian citizen with the Democracy Award.
News & Updates
Feature
Celebrating 26 Years of the American with Disabilities Act
On July 26, 1990, the United States passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark law increasing access to basic rights for persons with disabilities in the country. The ADA’s passage was the result of decades of advocacy by citizens with disabilities, following other successful legal reforms such as Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which established nondiscrimination of persons with disabilities in federally-funded programs as a right.
News & Updates
Feature
Myanmar’s Election Commission Takes Steps to Achieve Gender Equality and Include Voters with Disabilities
After five decades of military rule, Myanmar has initiated an ongoing process of democratic reform, opening new and significant political space. However, persons with disabilities in Myanmar still face numerous obstacles in accessing their right to vote, and, at only 6.8 percent, Myanmar has one of the lowest percentages of women in parliament in the region.
News & Updates
Feature
Engaging Deaf Communities Through Electoral Sign Language Lexicons
As part of its commitment to meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life, IFES is collaborating with Gallaudet University to develop a Haitian sign language lexicon of key election-related terms for publication on ElectionAccess.org. On November 2, 2018, the two organizations co-hosted an event on best practices for making elections around the world inclusive of Deaf communities.
News & Updates
Feature
Celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities
The annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities, held on December 3, commemorates the human rights of persons with disabilities. The theme for this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality.” In 2018, IFES partnered with disabled people’s organizations in every region of the world to develop new tools and approaches to empower people with disabilities to participate in political life.
News & Updates
Feature
IFES Joins United States International Council on Disability
On August 10, IFES became a member of the United States International Council on Disability (USICD). USICD, a network of organizations that promotes inclusion of disability perspectives in U.S. foreign policy and aid, spans organizations and individuals in more than 30 U.S. states and a number of foreign countries.
News & Updates
Feature
Empowering Persons with Intellectual Disabilities to Become Leaders in Myanmar
Last month, IFES and Future Stars, a self-advocacy organization, trained four new trainers with intellectual disabilities on how to build self-confidence to effectively and meaningfully participate in political life.