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The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) represents an important and (potentially) progressive development in the protection framework under international humanitarian law (IHL). Article 11 of the CRPD specifically obliges States to protect persons with disabilities from harm in situations of risk, including armed conflict, consistent with IHL and human rights law. The CRPD framework signals the need to address the traditional framing of disability under IHL and to draw from human rights concepts in the CRPD in order to inform the protection accorded to persons with disabilities in armed conflict. This article is divided into four main parts: the first three address three main lines of inquiry, while the fourth is forward-looking. The first part analyzes the framing and construction of disability in IHL and the implications of such framing for the protection of persons with disabilities. The second part analyzes fundamental IHL rules in an effort to demonstrate how the framing of disability and the protection framework of the CRPD can be used in the application of IHL. The third part identifies some specific problem areas ripe for further disability scoping and harmonization of the CRPD and IHL. Looking forward, the fourth part identifies entry points for focused action and research aimed at bringing about the kind of dynamic treaty practice envisioned by Article 11 of the CRPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics rarely raise the need to consider persons with disabilities when preventing, investigating and prosecuting international humanitarian law (IHL) violations. Worse still, no actual attempts have been made to include a disability perspective into practical guidance and monitoring mechanisms. This article addresses that void by laying out how existing yet unutilized IHL obligations can be leveraged to repress and suppress disability-based IHL violations. In doing so, the article will detail how fact-finding approaches, criminal investigative processes and reporting methods for IHL violations can be inclusive of persons with disabilities and thus more appropriately address the endemic under-representation of a disability perspective in the planning and execution of military operations during armed conflict and the specific crimes they thereby suffer. Additionally, this article will articulate concrete changes that should be made to international criminal law procedures for prosecuting war crimes to provide recognition and accountability for disability-based IHL violations, as has been done for violations against women and children. Finally, this article will diagnose the state of the law to address any legal challenges or hurdles that may hamper the inclusion of a disability perspective in fulfilling the IHL obligation to reduce and address violations of humanitarian law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This Article reviews the processes by which domestic-level transposition of international human rights norms may occur as a consequence of human rights treaty ratification, or other means of incorporation. [...]

This article examines whether and how the circumstances of Colombian ex-combatants with disabilities were recognized in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes in the period following the adoption of the 2016 peace agreement. Our results suggest severe procedural and substantive shortcomings during the drafting of the peace agreement and the implementation of the DDR processes that exacerbated the exclusion of ex-combatants with disabilities from available opportunities for their social, economic, and political reintegration. We conclude that a better understanding of the disabling impact of conflict and the experiences of impairment and disability could have mitigated such neglect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women over 65 bear high risk for developing cancer. The risk for developing most cancers grows with increasing age. Of the 1.13 million people estimated to develop cancer in 1992, 362,000 (32 percent) will be women over 65 years old (American Cancer Society, 1992). The few early detection and prevention programs that have focused on this age group have found that the women often have problems with utilization, misconceptions, and plain lack of correct information. Treatment for women over 65 with cancer may differ from that for younger women because of age bias, comorbidity, stage of disease at time of diagnosis, and a lack of research on women of this age. Even quality of life and survivorship for the woman over 65 become issues due to the lack of knowledge about how women over 65 view these concepts. The Healthy People 2000 Report has developed goals for a healthier society by the year 2000. The priority areas in relation to cancer include reduction in cigarette smoking, dietary changes, greater utilization of early detection mechanisms, and decreasing exposure to occupational and environmental carcinogens. Implementation of these goals should affect future generations in terms of healthy aging: however, specific programs do need to focus on the woman over 65 and her present needs which will impact current and future health status.

Six years after ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Bangladesh enacted the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2013, which recognized enforceable rights for Bangladeshis with disabilities for the first time and created a novel complaints procedure for seeking remedies outside of court. Yet little had been done to raise awareness of the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act's rights or its novel procedure, until a collaboration between BlueLaw International, an inclusive development firm, and three Bangladeshi organizations with national scope to empower local disabled peoples' organizations to advocate for implementation of the law in 7 of Bangladesh's 64 districts. After three years, this team had filed the first 22 complaints under the novel Section 36 procedure before district-level committees created by the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act. Although to date the outcomes of these complaints have been mixed, disabled peoples' organization efforts to activate this mechanism have yielded valuable lessons regarding effective advocacy strategies that can inform future disabled peoples' organization-led efforts. Although prospects for tangible governmental buy-in for effective, countrywide enforcement of the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act may be dim for now, disabled peoples' organizations have demonstrated their capacity to contribute meaningfully to operationalizing this important vehicle for domestic implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]