►
Description
Judith Heuman, Special Adviser, International Disability Rights for the U.S. Department of State, gave the keynote address at the 14th annual James B. Hunter Human Rights Awards in Arlington, VA on Dec. 13, 2012. The awards are sponsored by the Arlington Human Rights Commission.
A
A
B
I
first
would
like
to
be.
I
think
I
have
the
first
opportunity
or
second
opportunity
thank
all
of
you
for
coming
tonight.
How
much
we
appreciate
your
coming
out
and
supporting
others
who
have
been
awarded,
but
also
supporting
the
concept
of
promoting
human
rights.
Also,
I
would
like
to
add
my
congratulations
to
all
of
the
awardees.
B
It
is
very
reassuring
for
me
to
be
able
to
see
that
the
future
generations
will
be
carrying
on
and
promoting
and
advocating
for
human
rights,
and
I
think
you
will
hear
when
you
learn
about
our
next.
Our
keynote
speakers
background
that
she
started
out
as
a
very
young
person
as
an
activist
like
many
of
you,
and
this
has
led
to
a
very
prestigious
career
of
advocating
for
human
rights
and
in
particular,
disability
rights.
B
So
I
think
that
you
will
agree
that
many
of
the
greatest
human
rights
leaders
actually
started
out
as
young
people
like
yourself,
and
they
in
turn
have
led
a
life
of
contribution
and
promoting
human
rights
on
many
different
and
varied
subjects.
Well
tonight
I
have
the
distinct
honor
of
introducing
our
keynote
speaker
this
evening.
Judith
heumann
judy.
As
I
know,
her,
is
an
internationally
recognized
leader
in
the
disability
community
and
a
lifelong
civil
rights
advocate
for
disadvantaged
people.
B
In
this
capacity,
she
was
responsible
for
the
implementation
of
legislation
at
the
national
domestic
level
for
programs
in
special
education,
disability,
research,
vocational
rehabilitation
and
independent
living.
Serving
more
than
8
million
youth
and
adults
with
disabilities,
including
youth
and
adults,
right
here
in
arlington
county
for
more
than
30
years,
judy
has
been
involved
on
the
national
and
international
front,
working
on
disability
working
with
this
disabled
people's
organizations.
In
the
u
s
and
around
the
world,
she's
worked
with
governments
and
helping
them
to
organize
and
establish
human
rights
and
advance
human
rights
for
disabled
people.
B
The
the
name
of
the
film
judy
that
just
came
out
lives
worth
living.
If
you
haven't
seen
that
it
should
be
coming
out
on
pbs
pretty
soon
again,
okay,
independent
lens,
it's
a
wonderful
film
to
understand
over
the
years
decades.
Actually,
the
work
that
has
gone
on
in
promoting
disability
rights
and
judy
is
featured
in
that
film
and
you
get
to
hear
her
talk
and
see
her
as
a
young
lady
and
as
she's
moved
forward.
B
B
She
has
graduated
from
berkeley,
which
I
think
has
started
her
advocacy
career
in
activism.
She
has
in
her
spare
time
she
has
co-founded
independent
living
centers
in
california,
and
she
has
three
honorary
doctorates
from
three
different
universities.
This
is
an
amazing
woman.
So
please
join
me
in
welcoming
her
as
our
keynote
speaker,
judith.
B
C
Having
read
about
the
reason
why
these
awards
are
being
given.
I
think
you
all
need
to
feel
very
proud,
and
I
think
the
committee
itself
did
a
very
nice
job
of
really
selecting
four
different
categories
that
really
show
the
breadth
of
the
work
that's
going
on
in
arlington,
so
the
wakefield
high
school
project,
upstanders
fighting
against
bullying
is
a
very
important
issue.
I
think
many
of
us
in
the
room,
particularly
those
of
you
who
are
youth
and
who
have
family
members
or
teachers
or
others
understand
the
problems
of
bullying.
C
The
washington
lee
high
school's
best
buddies
club,
I
think,
is
another
really
great
example
of
how
another
group
of
individuals
that
have
been
disenfranchised
in
many
communities
and
some
of
the
individuals
in
this
program
also
have
experienced
bullying.
So
there's
also
a
connection
between
these
two
programs.
They're,
not
identical.
They
deal
with
many
issues
in
the
area
of
diversity,
but
I
think
these
two
programs
are
critically
important
and
sarah
heisi.
C
Where
is
sarah?
I
came
a
little
late.
Is
she
here
hi
sarah?
So
I
really
appreciated
reading
about
the
leadership
role
that
you've
been
playing
in
in
fighting
for
the
rights
of
people
in
the
area
of
gender
and
sexual
minorities
and
as
a
powerful
student
advocate
and
as
a
leader
in
the
community
and
kip.
Where
is
kip
in
the
back?
I
can't
see
you
could
you
stand
up?
C
So
for
me
I
think
these
four
award
winners
or
four
categories,
two
groups
and
two
individuals
very
much
speak
to
what
I'd
like
to
briefly
talk
with
you
about
this
evening.
You
know
I,
like
many
people
in
our
communities
and
around
the
united
states,
have
experienced
marginalization
and
have
experienced
discrimination
again.
C
Tonight
is
a
part
of
that
progression.
The
reality
is
10
20
years
ago.
We
would
not
be
seeing
people
being
honored
for
the
work
that
they're
doing
on
sexual
orientation
on
rights
of
lgbt
people.
That
was
an
issue
that
really
was
not
being
discussed
and
over
the
last
20
years,
we've
seen
another
group
individuals
from
this
community
who
have
really
been
fighting
for
their
rights
and
the
communities
as
a
whole.
We
see
more
and
more
people
understanding
the
injustices
that
people
from
the
lgbt
community
have
experienced.
C
Not
only
looking
at
what
barriers
we
faced,
but
looking
to
the
civil
rights
movement,
the
women's
movement
and
other
movements
that
were
advancing
in
the
50s
and
60s
and
we
as
disabled,
younger
people,
and
I
want
to
really
underscore
the
fact
that
much
of
the
advancements
in
the
area
of
disability
really
did
come
from
the
movement
of
young
people.
We
were
not
very
experienced,
we
many
of
us
were
just
entering
in
college
or
just
entering
the
world
of
work,
and
we
decided
a
number
of
things.
C
One
we
didn't
want
to
just
complain
about
the
problems.
We
had
solutions.
Two
we
had
to
fight
against
a
system
that,
at
that
point
in
time,
was
very
much
oriented
towards
cure
of
disability.
We
were
not
interested
in
discussing
cure
of
disability.
We
wanted
to
discuss
rights
for
those
of
us
with
disabilities.
C
C
They
look
at
us
and
say:
how
could
we
live
our
lives
like
your
life
or
you're,
an
exception
to
the
rule,
as
opposed
to
recognizing
that
those
of
us
with
disabilities
and
other
categories
of
people
who
face
discrimination
once
given
opportunities,
make
contributions
when
we're
denied
opportunities?
The
denial
of
those
opportunities
also
deny
our
ability
to
make
contributions
to
our
community
discrimination,
as
many
of
you
know
in
this
room
is
very
demoralizing.
C
C
C
Communities
have
to
be
committed
to
facilitating
an
understanding
of
the
types
of
barriers
that
exist
in
our
communities
and
how
those
barriers
have
been
limiting
opportunities
for
people
and
limiting
opportunities
for
any
group
of
people
who
are
being
discriminated
against
makes
our
communities
weaker
and
now
that
I'm
in
this
position,
working
in
the
state
department
for
secretary
clinton,
I've
had
the
good
fortune
of
being
able
to
travel.
So
in
the
last
two
and
a
half
years,
I
think
I've
traveled
to
about
20
countries.
C
C
So
maybe
that's
where
we
start.
So
the
state
department
is
a
u.s
governmental
organization.
It
doesn't
do
work
within
the
united
states.
It
takes
what
the
united
states
is
doing
and
tries
to
help
share
that
information
with
people
around
the
world
and
our
embassies,
of
course,
do
many
things,
including
getting
you
visas
and
other
issues
that
you
may
know
about.
C
But
the
embassies
are
really
our
voices
in
other
countries.
The
embassies
are
the
face
of
the
united
states,
and
so
now
that
I
am
working
on
the
issue
of
inclusion
of
disabled
people
in
the
work
of
the
state
department,
that
is
opening
up
another
opportunity
for
the
u.s
to
be
able
to
be
seen
as
a
country
which
is
really
working
towards
the
inclusion
of
disabled
people.
Now,
obviously,
we
are
still
working
on
improving,
what's
happening
in
the
united
states.
C
C
Don't
necessarily
really
understand
the
solutions,
so
part
of
my
job
is
to
really
help
people
one
understand
what
human
rights
violations
are
against
disabled
people
and
we
can
look
at
the
united
states
to
look
at
the
kinds
of
human
rights
and
civil
rights
violations
that
we
have
experienced,
and
I
look
at
my
own
life
and
I
talk
excuse
me.
I
talk
about
my
life
as
an
example
of
the
types
of
barriers
that
we
have
faced
in
the
u.s.
C
Needless
to
say,
the
teaching
that
was
going
on
in
that
program
was
pretty
minimal.
It
was
a
program
that
had
children
five
six
years
old
up
to
21
students
at
that
point
did
not
go
to
high
school.
After
they
were
21
years
old.
They
went
to
something
called
sheltered
workshops.
Some
of
you
know
about
them.
Hopefully
more
and
more
of
you
don't
know
about
them
because
they're
being
closed
down,
but
sheltered
workshops
really
were
a
place
where
people
who
had
disabilities
were
sent
to
quote-unquote
work.
C
In
most
cases,
people
were
earning
below
minimum
wage,
doing
menial
jobs
and
jobs
in
many
cases
that
were
neither
valuable
nor
were
people
able
to
do
so.
We
used
to
joke.
I
had
many
friends
with
disabilities
still
do
for
someone
who
had
cerebral
palsy
and
difficulty
using
their
hands
being
sent
to
a
sheltered
workshop
to
stuff
envelopes.
C
Well,
clearly,
if
you
have
limited
use
of
your
hands
stuffing
envelopes
is
not
something
you're
going
to
be
able
to
do
very
effectively,
which
would
mean
that
you
couldn't
produce
the
number
of
stuff
stuffed
animal.
Stuffed
animals
stuffed
envelopes
that
non-disabled
people
could
do.
So
that
was
the
rationale
for
paying
you
below
minimum
wage.
C
C
But
we
learned
early,
my
parents
were
immigrants,
they
were
survivors
from
the
holocaust
and
I
was
the
first
of
three
children.
They
didn't
know
any
other
disabled
people
so
like
in
arlington
and
many
other
countries
states
around
the
united
states.
We
have
many
immigrants.
We
have
many
immigrants
who
have
come
from
countries
where
rights
are
something
that
they
were
not
granted.
Disabled
or
not.
People
coming
to
the
united
states
need
to
learn
how
to
take
advantage
of
the
opportunities
that
exist
here
that
they
have
a
right
to
speak
out.
C
They
have
a
right
to
advocate
for
themselves
and
for
other
people.
These
are
big
issues
and
my
mother
and
others
were
kind
of
learning
how
to
do
this.
There
weren't
any
groups.
You
know
where
parents
could
go
really
to
learn
about
this,
so
my
mother
was
not
an
advocate
before
I
had
polio,
but
my
mother
and
father
recognized.
C
They
wanted
me
to
have
opportunities
and
that
if
they
were
leaving
it
up
to
the
system
to
provide
me
with
opportunities,
I
too
would
be
in
a
sheltered
workshop
and
they
didn't
support
my
friends
going
to
sheltered
workshops
also,
so
it
wasn't
that
it
wasn't
for
me,
but
it
was
okay
for
someone
else.
They
really
understood
the
broader
picture
of
what
was
going
on
now.
C
You
may
have
seen
it
how
many
of
you
heard
about
it
convention
on
the
rights
person
with
this,
how
many
of
you
really
heard
about
it
for
the
first
time
in
the
last
two
weeks,
the
convention
on
the
rights
of
persons
with
disabilities
is
really
similar
to
the
americans
with
disabilities
act.
How
many
of
you
ever
heard
of
the
americans
with
disabilities
act?
C
Okay,
not
enough
hands,
so
someone
needs
to
teach
you
about
this.
You
can
go
and
google
it.
It's
called
the
americans
with
disabilities
act.
It
was
a
law
that
was
passed
in
1990,
it's
a
very
important
piece
of
legislation
for
the
rights
of
disabled
individuals,
and
when
I
talk
about
disabled
people,
I'm
not
just
talking
about
those
of
us
with
visible
disabilities.
C
I'm
talking
about
people
who
have
depression
or
bipolar
people
with
other
forms
of
psychosocial
disabilities,
people
with
intellectual
disabilities
and
developmental
disabilities,
people
with
learning
disabilities
and
attention
deficit,
disorder,
people
with
diabetes
and
with
epilepsy
and
cancer,
and
on
and
on
and
on
and
on.
There
are
many
many
different
types
of
disabilities.
C
C
It
is
very
important
for
many
reasons,
but
in
particular,
because
there
are
now
at
least
one
billion
people
in
the
world
with
disabilities.
That's
according
to
a
world
health
organization
and
world
bank
report.
Eighty
percent
of
those
individuals
live
in
developing
countries.
The
poorest
countries
in
the
world.
The
world
bank
says
that
ninety
percent
of
children
with
disabilities
do
not
receive
an
education.
C
So
when
I'm
visiting
countries
in
africa
or
in
asia,
where
we
have
large
populations
of
poverty-
and
you
go
in
and
start
talking
with
people
about
what
their
rights
should
be,
what
the
crpd
is
basically
enabling
them
to
achieve.
There
are
now
125
countries
that
have
ratified
the
convention
on
the
rights
of
persons
with
disabilities.
C
It
is
really
a
tragedy
that
the
u.s
congress
did
not
vote
for
the
crpd
last
week
and
what
I
believe
some
of
you
who
are
computer
literate
should
really
go
home
and
look
at
what's
happened
in
the
last
couple
of
weeks.
Rachel
maddow
had
a
piece
on
this
anderson
cooper
had
a
piece
thursday,
friday
and
monday.
C
C
What
we
are
trying
to
do
is
to
allow
people
to
see
the
role
of
government
which,
in
the
case
of
these
awards
tonight
at
the
county
level,
really
shows
through
the
human
rights
commission,
the
role
of
the
commission
and
the
fact
that
the
commission
really
values
people
in
the
community
and
wants
to
reward
people
for
the
work
that
they're
doing
and
that.
Obviously
the
human
rights
commission
looks
at
issues
around
the
ada
and
eeoc
issues,
etc.
C
Bolivia,
so
I
don't
know
in
the
work
that
you're
doing
with
sister
cities,
whether
you're
highlighting
your
work
on
disability
or
on
diversity,
but
I
encourage
you
to
do
that
when
I'm
traveling
and
working
with
our
embassies
and
others,
I
discuss
issues
like
sister
cities.
So
let
me
give
you
an
example.
I
was
in
jordan
and
I
had
a
meeting
with
the
mayor
of
jordan
and
his
city
council
city
council,
where
his
office
was
had
three
steps
to
get
into
it.
C
He
was
an
architect
and
at
the
end
of
the
meeting
I
showed
him
the
steps
and
he
said
he
would
get
them
ramped
and
his
head
designer
said
it
would
happen
in
one
year
and
he
said
it
would
happen
in
two
weeks
and
it
actually
happened
in
10
days,
which
was
a
great
example
of
how
to
make
change.
But
what
we
also
then
worked
on
was
there's.
One
of
their
sister
cities
was
chicago,
chicago
has
a
great
mayor's
office
on
disability,
and
so
we
were
linking
up
the
mayor's
office
on
disability.
C
In
oman
with
the
mayor's
office
on
disability
in
chicago,
we
had
a
video
conference
where
they
were
able
to
speak
to
each
other,
and
we
were
looking
at
doing
exchanges
between
the
two
different
offices.
Unfortunately,
the
king
removed
him
from
office,
and
so
we
are
still
working
on
moving
that
forward,
but
it
was
a
real
example
of
what
can
happen
and
we,
I
could
give
you
many
many
other
examples
of
work
that
we're
doing,
but
we
can't.
C
I
cannot
do
my
job
without
being
able
to
highlight
work
like
is
going
on
in
arlington,
so
please
keep
up
the
fantastic
work
that
you're
doing
and,
equally
importantly,
look
at
opportunities
as
you're
doing
work
with
sister
cities
and
as
the
government
in
arlington
or
maryland,
is
also
going
overseas.
Looking
for
opportunities
to
generate
business
and
tourism
etc
with
other
countries.
C
One
of
the
things
that
is
really
important
is
that
we
advertise
the
accessibility
of
our
communities,
because
many
people
in
many
other
countries,
including
in
countries
in
europe
and
others,
do
not
have
the
same
advantages
that
we
have.
We
also
need
to
highlight
the
fact
that
it
is
very
important
to
have
good
laws,
strong
laws,
laws
that
are
not
just
written
by
government,
but
where
government
communicates
and
works
with
people
in
the
community
to
have
a
better
understanding
of
what
types
of
discrimination
and
barriers
people
experience
and
that
it's
not
just
good
laws.
C
How
they've
been
written,
how
they're
being
implemented
benefits
that
we
can
tangibly
discuss
and
how
civil
society
works
with
government
those
kinds
of
real
hardcore
examples?
We
know
we're
not
perfect.
We
discuss
that.
We're
not
perfect
that
we
have
much
further
to
go,
but
we
should
feel
very
proud
of
the
work
that
we
have
been
doing
and
that
we
never
give
up.
Thank
you
very.