NEWS: Kosovo Disability Community Urges US President-Elect Barack Obama to Support International Disability Rights

03 December 2008,
International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Dear Mr. Obama,

Congratulations to US. People and to you personally on your historic win to be 44th President of the United States of America .

Your acceptance speech was so good to hear when many minority groups have been mentioned, specifically persons with disabilities and it shows that you believe in celebrating the diversity present in society.

We are pleased to send you our compliments on your disability platform of four parts:
• Increasing educational opportunities,
• Ending discrimination and promoting equal opportunity,
• Increasing the employment rate of workers with disabilities and
• Supporting independent living of persons with disabilities

We believe those to be the best practices which will lead the world in empowering persons with disabilities to take full advantage of their talents and become independent, integrated members of society.

We, persons with disabilities from Republic of Kosovo congratulate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities as well as the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to all our friends and colleagues in U.S and to you.

The celebration of 2008 as a significant year in the global disability rights movement, given the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as the first international, legally-binding human rights treaty for persons with disabilities, will give us the opportunities to achieve a vision of a society where all can live with dignity and respect.

Finally, we urge you to use your new position as a world leader for the welfare of persons with disabilities not just in your great country of United States of America , but also in other countries around the world. In short, we want the idea of universal human rights to become a reality to all of us.

Our warmest regards and best wishes from Republic Kosovo

Hiljmnijeta Apuk, Human Rights Defender

On behalf of the membership of Little People of Kosovo, multiethnic NGOs partnership of Voluntary Promotional Program of Disability Mentoring Days – DMD, Monthly magazine “Newspaper to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of Kosovo” in 6 languages, Hendifer – Ferizaj and Art Coalition of Authentic Culture of Persons with Disabilities.



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Thank you to Hiljmnijeta Apuk for granting permission to post this letter at We Can Do. A global campaign is under way to urge people with disabilities, our loved ones, colleagues, and other allies from around the world to send emails to Obama to increase the visibility of disability issues within Obama’s administration. Learn more about the international Call To Action and how you can participate at http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/disabilities-email-obama/. Most of the same text is also in the slide show further below (click on the arrows to move through the show).

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[Published at wecando.wordpress.com (We Can Do)]