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Important Notice: As of 1 November 2023, Ms. Heba Hagrass (Egypt) has been appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as the current Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities.

New Technologies

Gerard Quinn Speaking at the HRC 54th Session

Artificial Intelligence, Disability & the Right to Health.

October 4, 2023

Presentation of the UN Special Rapporteur on a side event at the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council - October 2023. Looking back, I was an active advocate for disability rights in the early 1990s when the 3rd Industrial revolution was underway (the invention of the world wide web). That revolution involved the coming […]

Highlights of August newsletter

Monthly Newsletter of the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability- August 2023

Highlights of Gerard's work and upcoming events. If you are not on the mailing list and would like to receive his montlhy newsletters via email, please contact us!

banner of podcast EP5, featuring picture of Keely Cat Wells

Podcast Ep5: Keely Cat-Wells on disability in movies, entertainment and across popular culture.

As a talent agent, Keely Cat-Wells advocates for more presence of people with disabilities on screens and for expanding their roles beyond representing disability.

CoSP16: Closing remarks by Gerard Quinn, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Our challenge is to find ways of eliminating the distorting variables that don’t allow the voice of people with disabilities to be heard. I wish to thank the Bureau for the invitation to participate in the closing of the 16th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons […]

UN Secretary General speaking at the opening of COSP 16

CoSP 16: Opening remarks by the UN Special Rapporteur, Prof. Gerard Quinn

We are at a key inflection point of the Artificial Intelligence revolution, which will have massive implications for persons with disabilities.

person operating a tablet device

Transforming services and care for persons with disabilities.

Social services--for persons with or without disabilities--should no longer be limited to provide for a floor of social provision, but should also enable pathways to active citizenship. New values, new treaties, new legal instruments are all well and good, but they have to be accompanied and made real by changes in underlying practices and institutional […]