Disability Rights

Of the world’s one billion persons with disabilities, 80 percent reside in developing countries. The vast majority of these people are marginalized and disproportionately poor. In countries around the globe, persons with disabilities are excluded from education, employment, and political processes due to physical, communicational, and attitudinal barriers. In some regions, persons with disabilities are segregated from their communities, locked in institutions, or secluded and marginalized within their own communities.

The Open Society Disability Rights Initiative seeks to address discrimination against people with disabilities and promote their inclusion in society by supporting a rights-based approach to disability. Building on the momentum and opportunity created by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the initiative supports civil society to build networks and mobilize campaigns that advance disability rights through advocacy for ratification and for implementation of this new human rights instrument. The program provides funding for national and global advocacy efforts that galvanize constituencies and engage new partners to develop rights-based strategies to implement the CRPD. The initiative gives priority to efforts that envision collaboration across movements and sectors, combine monitoring and documentation with advocacy and litigation, and seek to strengthen rights protections and remedies.

For more information, please see the Disability Rights Initiative grant guidelines.