Treaty fostered by HLS Project on Disability to be signed by the U.S.

HPOD Executive Director Michael Stein ’88

On Friday July 24, President Barack Obama ’91 announced that the United States will sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, joining more than 100 other nations. The Harvard Law School Project on Disability played a prominentrole in the negotiations leading up to the convention, which is the first global human rights treaty of the 21st century.

HPOD was represented at the White House ceremony on Friday afternoon by the project’s Executive Director Michael Stein ’88, Cabell Professor at William & Mary Law School and frequent visiting professor at HLS. An expert in disability law, Stein played an important role in the convention’s drafting and its adoption by the U.N. in 2006. The convention has since been signed by 139 nations and ratified by 59.

“The United States signing of the CRPD and submitting it to the Senate for ratification reaffirms American commitment to rejoining the global community generally, and to continuing leadership in the area of disability law and policy,” said Stein, who will attend the signing at the U.N. on July 31.

The convention took legal effect one month following the 20th national ratification, on May 3, 2008. Under the direction of Stein and HLS Professor and HPOD Chair William Alford ’77, the project has been working to foster the convention’s implementation. HPOD’s work is concentrated mainly in Bangladesh, China, Korea, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam, with growing requests for its assistance from several other nations. HPOD offers scholarly research, legislative development, training programs for disabled persons organizations, and assistance to foreign academic institutions.

Films: The best source to bring awareness on disability and new entry "My name is Khan"

Being touted as one of the biggest blockbusters of the year even before its release, Shahrukh-kajol starrer 'My Name is Khan' recently touched upon another landmark.

Fox Star Studios, who distributed oscar winner 'Slumdog Millionare' in India have reportedly picked up the rights of the Karan Johar biggie for a whopping Rs. 100 crore.

The movie has been receiving rave reviews from the critics who have managed to catch rushes of the movie. 'My name is Khan' has been receiving a lot of audience attention as it brings back the legendary pairing of the Raj and Simran of Bollywood aka Shahrukh-Kajol.

The critics who managed to hear some of music from the movie composed by trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were overwhelmed and consider the album to be potential chartbuster.

Wiritten by Shibani Bhatija, the movie deals with a Muslim (Shah Rukh) who suffers from the Asperger syndrome, a form of autism that impacts social interaction abilities, who is arrested as a suspected terrorist in post-9/11 Los Angeles after authorities mistake his disability for suspicious behaviour.

Just as it is said, nothing sells better in Bollywood than Shahrukh Khan.. all of us await the arrival of 'Khan'.

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ASIAN ACADEMY Of Film And Television along with the social organisation 'Brotherhood' organised “Look Back We Care Film Festival”- an event of films on Disability at Marwah Studios, Film City, Noida. The collection of films on different issues of disabilities were projected to the large crowd, film and television students of AAFT, ASMS and ABS with an idea to evoke emotions towards people who are sometimes ignored by the community and society for no rhyme or reasons.

“We have joined hands with Brotherhood only to promote the idea of creating awareness towards disability,” said Sandeep Marwah, President Marwah Studios.

“We at brotherhood have pledged to promote our disable brothers and sisters to come forward in life and become independent” said Satish Kapoor, the director of the Festival .The festival is supported by the information Centre of United Nation, National Trust, Shivkala Motion Pictures and International Film And Television Club.

“We have to look back into Hindi feature films like Black, Dosti, Tare Zameen pain, Koshish that share quite some information highlighted the problems of disability” said Sameer Sen Chief Guest of the day and renowned music director who has given music to 150 feature films like Jalwa, Arjun Pandit, Anari No 1, Achanak, Salakhen, Kartavaya etc.

BB Choudhary IPS, Sanjeev Sachdeva, Rajeev Chandran of United Nation Information Centre, RKSingh former Engineer in Chief, Doordarshan, Raghaveddhiraa of Mangolore Port Trust, Sharad Dutt of Channel P7 were the other speakers of the day. The programme was followed by screening of 15 selected short films on disability.

India: Ist International Deaf Conference - 2009

On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, the Universal Sanatana Dharma for the Deaf is organizing, for the first time in India, the 1st International Deaf Conference for Spiritual Life and Vision at ISKCON Auditorium, Mumbai, on the 5th and 6th of December, 2009. For this event, a large number of Spiritual Leaders, Mediators, Healers and Moral Educators from various countries are invited to impart spiritual knowledge, and to provide opportunities to the Deaf people in India.

One of the purposes of this conference is to provide a common ground for open interaction between deaf persons and the hearing, in order to create a spirit of brotherhood. It will also help foster a new environment of freedom, life, independence and rich face to face communication with the society. This conference is aimed at encouraging well-being, happiness and love among the deaf persons and extending guidance to them and their significant ones on better education and empowerment so as to eradicate barriers faced by the deaf. Finally, it is platform provided to identify, discuss and work out conclusions regarding issues faced by the deaf.

Five hundred participants are expected to attend the Conference where they will be able to benefit from the Spiritual Knowledge. There will be Drama / Plays performed by the Deaf people portraying the spiritual stories.