Professor Michael Ashley Stein Honored by US International Council on Disability

The United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD) has selected HPOD's Executive Director, Professor Michael Ashley Stein, to receive this year’s prestigious Dole-Harkin award. The award honors leaders of the disability rights movement whose impact has been felt on the international stage. Professor Stein will be presented this year's award at USICD's annual gala in Washington, DC on December 4th, a day after the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Stein will join the ranks of many notable contributors to the disability rights movements in the United States and abroad, including Senators Tom Harkin, John McCain, and Tammy Duckworth; Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Jim Langevin, and Dina Titus; as well as disability rights champions Judith Heumann, Victor Pineda, and John Wodatch. 

This award celebrates Professor Stein's remarkable contributions to the evolution of disability rights protections throughout the world. As HPOD's Executive Director, he participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and his voluminous scholarship spanning nearly 300 publications and compendia has helped to amplify its path-breaking provisions, including the Oxford University Press' authoritative commentary on the CRPD. He has edited volumes that have elucidated the CRPD's implications for employers, mental health systems, private corporations, and accessible technology, while also authoring articles that push the boundaries of bioethics, voting rights, research ethics, access to health care, criminal responsibility, intersections of indigeneity and disability, and the decision-making rights of persons with intellectual disabilities. At the same time, he has been instrumental in leveraging his scholarly activities to support impactful strategic litigation, including through amicus briefs before the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and beyond. 

Professor Stein's scholarship and advocacy continues to address the most pressing disability rights issues of our times. For example, he recently has positioned HPOD to make unique contributions to advance greater recognition of and protection for disability rights in situations of armed conflict and amidst the global climate crisis. Along with HPOD Senior Associate Janet Lord and HPOD fellow William Pons, he has shone a light on the accountability gaps for disability-related violations of international criminal and humanitarian law and has urged the United Nations to ensure that persons with disabilities are expressly included in an anticipated new international treaty to prevent and punish crimes against humanity. At the same time, he has teamed up with HPOD Senior Associate Penelope J.S. Stein to bring together like-minded colleagues to join a call for disability inclusion in the global climate agenda and more robust research on the disproportionate effects of climate change on persons with disabilities. Moreover, in the face of the demographic challenges presented by rapidly ageing populations, Professor Stein has leveraged HPOD's institutional assets to support ongoing efforts to develop an international treaty on the human rights of older persons, together with HPOD Senior Advisor Luis Gallegos.

USICD is a federation of US-based non-governmental organizations, federal agencies and individuals committed to advocacy and action on behalf of the global disability rights agenda. Through its network of disability organizations and other NGO stakeholders, government members and individual advocates, USICD undertakes advocacy efforts aimed at influencing critical emerging issues both in the United States and internationally.