In this video (filmed in 2009 in Finnish Sign Language FinSL and English voiceover), Liisa Kauppinen (Former President of the World Federation of the Deaf explains the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of People with Disabilities. She received the 2013 United Nations Human Rights Award Prize from the United Nations on Human Rights Day on 10 December 2013 in New York, USA.
Dr Kauppinen was particularly effective in securing the inclusion of references to signed languages, Deaf Culture, Deaf Community and the identity of deaf people within the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). The focus of Dr Kauppinen’s human rights work, however, has not been exclusively on the rights of deaf people, but also on human rights for all. She has promoted both rights of women and women with disabilities through co-operation with other human rights activists, representatives of governments and international non-governmental organisations.
Dr Kauppinen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College Dublin in 2013.
For further information please visit www.wfdeaf.org and to see the convention click here: UNCRPD
