People with disabilities have rights!
Everyone has rights. And people with disabilities have the SAME RIGHTS as any other citizen! In Rhode Island there are laws to help protect the Human Rights of people with developmental disabilities. The Systems Advocacy Committee of the RI Developmental Disabilities Council believes that it is important for people to know and UNDERSTAND their Human Rights. So we started a project to talk about Rights and we decided to develop our own "BILL OF RIGHTS" for the Council. We wanted to identify the Rights that we thought were the most important ones for people to know.
Council members with disabilities developed a presentation (below) about the human rights they believe are the most important ones for people with developmental disabilities. If you would like training on this topic at your agency, give us a call at 737-1238.
Check out the presentation on "OUR BILL OF RIGHTS".
Christine Singleton
Chairperson
Systems Advocacy Committee
People with disabilities 50 percent more likely to be target of violent crime
A by the Department of Justice has found that people with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to experience nonfatal violent crime.
Within specific groups, the risk of violence was even higher. Women with disabilities were almost twice as likely to be the target of a non-fatal violent crime as their nondisabled counterparts, as were people with disabilities aged 12 to 19 and 35 to 49.
The study, the first of its kind, found that people with cognitive disabilities had a rate of nonfatal violent crime higher than the rates for people with all other kinds of disabilities. (about 28 per 1,000 persons aged 12 or older in 2007).
The study's authors did not speculate on the reasons for the findings, but noted that nearly one in five of the violent crime victims with a disability believed that they were targeted because of their disability.
Among other findings:
* People with a disability had an age-adjusted rate of rape or sexual assault that was more than twice the rate for people without a disability.
* More than half of violent crimes against people with disabilities were against those with more than one type of disability.
All told, the report tallied about 716,000 nonfatal violent crimes like assault, rape and robbery against Americans with disabilities during the year 2007. This population experienced about 2.3 million property crimes over the same period.
House Adds Hate Crimes Protections For People With
Disabilities
Violent crimes committed based on a person's disability would become
federal hate crimes offenses under legislation approved by the House of
Representatives in Washington, D.C. on October 8, 2009. The
legislation builds upon the 1968 hate crimes act by adding disability,
gender, sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected
statuses. Current law includes protections for crimes committed based on
a person's race, color, religion or national origin.
This legislation was initiated after the Justice Department study released earlier this month indicating that people with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to experience nonfatal violent crime as compared to their peers. Of crime victims with disabilities, the study indicated that about one in five said they thought their disability was the reason they were targeted.
"No American should ever have to suffer persecution or violence because
of who they are, how they look or what they believe," House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said of the hate crimes bill, which passed as
part of a larger defense spending bill. "This legislation also gives
state and local law enforcement the tools they need to prevent and
prosecute hate crimes nationwide, helping protect Americans against
bias-motivated violence and securing our fundamental right to feel safe
in our communities."
The legislation must still be approved by the Senate and by President Barack Obama, which are both likely to happen.
NOTE: The Systems Advocacy Committee (SAC) of the RI Developmental Disabilities Council is very interested in educational activities to promote the safety of people with developmental disabilities and to prevent abuse. We are currently working on the development of the following informational materials and training:
* Booklet for People with Disabilities on Preventing Sexual Abuse
* Booklet for Families on Responding to Sexual Abuse
* Booklet for People with Disabilities on Preventing Financial Exploitation/Abuse
For more information on these booklets continue to check this website!
