News Advisory

NCD #04-441
December 1, 2003
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004
202-272-2074 TTY
mquigley@ncd.gov

Lex Frieden to Moderate United Nations Panel

WASHINGTON-Lex Frieden, chairperson of the National Council on Disability and president of Rehabilitation International, will moderate a panel discussion on the importance of a United Nations (UN) convention on the human rights of people with disabilities during the 2003 observance of International Day of Disabled Persons on December 3 at UN headquarters in New York City. The entire program (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/disid2003.htm) will be held in Conference Room 4 from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Panelists include: Michael Brennen, World Federation of the Deaf-Blind, Steven Estey, Disabled Peoples International, Tina Minkowitz, World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, and Eva Sandborg, World Health Organization.

For more information on the convention, please see NCD's UN Disability Convention-Topics at a Glance: History of the Process (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/history_process.html ).

International Day of Disabled Persons promotes an understanding of disability issues and mobilizes support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of people with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

NCD is an independent federal agency making recommendations to the President and Congress on disability policy. In 1995, the United States Mission to the United Nations "advised that the contact point within the U.S. government for disabilities issues is the...National Council on Disability."