xv Preface After decades of activism and advocacy, disability rights have become a global concern in the 21st century. International or- ganizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have redefined the term “disabil- ity,” recorded the demographic data of disabled people through- out the world, and made official calls for the integration of disabled people into mainstream life. In December 2006, the UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), marking 60 years of human rights mea- sures and more than 50 years of enactments specifically de- signed to benefit people with a broad range of disabilities. The UN CRPD entered into force in May 2008. In May 2018, the Convention had been ratified by177 countries. As it states on the UN’s website: The Convention follows decades of work . . . to change at- titudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as “objects” of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as “subjects” with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society. (UN, 2018) Through the actions of the UN, and other interested orga- nizations, disabled people came to represent one of the world’s
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