Events

In addition to HPOD’s annual fall open house, HPOD’s wide-ranging fall 2021 semester academic and educational events addressed emerging issues at the intersection of mental health and legal capacity, COVID-19 and persons with disabilities in Latin America, as well as disability rights in the varied contexts of accessible technology and development, business and human rights discourse, and journalism.

Accessible Technology and the Developing World

On September 28th, HPOD Executive Director Professor Michael Ashley Stein participated in a panel hosted by the Harvard Law School Library to discuss the book Accessible Technology and the Developing World, which he co-edited with HPOD associate and University of Maryland College of Information Studies Professor Jonathan Lazar. They were joined by co-panelists Amy Landers of Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Deepti Samant Raja of the World Bank, and Raja Kushalnagar of Gallaudet University. In developing areas of the world, as new technical infrastructures are being built, it is especially important to ensure that accessibility is a key design goal. Unfortunately, nearly all research on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility and innovation for persons with disabilities—whether from the legal, technical, or development fields—has focused on developed countries, with very little being written about developing world initiatives. Stein and Lazar’s volume aims to change this, by bringing increased attention to ICT accessibility in developing areas. Access a recording of this event.

Mental Health and Legal Capacity

On October 8th featured a twin billing of HPOD events. The first was a book launch co-organized by HPOD and GlobalMentalHealth@Harvard Initiative. The book, Mental Health, Legal Capacity, and Human Rights, was co-edited by HPOD Executive Director Professor Michael Ashley Stein along with HPOD affiliates Professor Vikram Patel of the Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and Faraaz Mahomed, an Open Society Foundation Mental Health and Rights program officer, as well as the GlobalMentalHealth@Harvard Initiative‘s coordinator Juliana Restivo and Charlene Sunkel, of the Global Mental Health Peer Network. During this event, the co-editors discussed how the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has generated considerable debate across disciplines on the topic of legal capacity in mental health settings regarding the shifts required in law and clinical practice. The co-editors also published a comment in The Lancet Psychiatry that offers a synopsis of the book’s far-reaching and varied explorations of this rapidly evolving space.

Disruptions of Dignity

Later in the day on October 8th, HPOD co-organized another panel event with Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Prominent experts and practitioners at the intersection of health and disability rights in Latin America gathered to discuss the disproportionate toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of persons with disabilities throughout Latin America. These effects were especially evident for institutionalized persons with disabilities throughout the region – who faced heightened risk of COVID-19 transmission and increased isolation in these congregate settings – as well as for children with disabilities, who experienced disruptions in access to education and other critical services. As countries across the region begin to emerge from the depths of the pandemic, Alicia Ely Yamin of the Petrie-Flom Center, Justice José Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena of the Mexican Supreme Court, and Alejandro Morlachetti of the Pan-American Health Organization took stock of the opportunities and challenges for Latin American countries to build a more inclusive society for persons with disabilities, and the role of courts in advancing robust frameworks to do so. Access a recording of this event.

Pressing for Disability Rights

On November 9th, the National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) and HPOD organized a panel event on the intersection of journalism and disability rights. NCDJ Director Kristin Gilger moderated an engaging panel of practitioners at this critical intersection including Joe Shapiro, NPR News Investigations correspondent; Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Professor Emerita of English and bioethics, Emory University; Eric Garcia, senior Washington correspondent, The Independent, and Amanda Morris, disability reporting fellow, The New York Times. Panelists drew from their professional and personal experiences in discussing pressing questions, including strategies for navigating the line between journalistic practice and advocacy, preserving the dignity of persons with disabilities while conveying how their disabilities are relevant to the story, increasing the diversity of newsrooms and throughout the industry, and holding journalists accountable for reporting on disability issues ethically and accurately. Access a recording of this event here, as well as a compilation of stories reflecting good practices that other journalists can keep in mind.

Business and Human Rights Law

Finally, on November 16th, HPOD Executive Director Professor Michael Ashley Stein joined Professor Ilias Bantekas of the Hamad Bin Kalifa College of Law, along with panelists Professors Marija Jovanovic of the University of Essex School of Law and Jessica Corsi of City University London, for an expansive discussion hosted by the Harvard Law School Library on corporations' role in promoting human rights standards for people with disabilities and other populations across the globe. This event showcased the work compiled in Professors Stein and Bantekas’ co-edited volume, The Cambridge Companion to Business and Human Rights Law, as well as their co-authored Business and Human Rights Journal article, both of which advance the thesis that businesses can operate profitably and sustainably while ensuring that they are applying human rights.