Mental Disability Rights International

Disability Rights International (DRI—formerly "Mental Disability Rights International"), is a Washington, DC based human rights advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the human rights and full participation in society of persons with disabilities worldwide. DRI documents conditions, publishes reports, and promotes international oversight of the rights of persons with disabilities.

DRI was founded in 1993 by attorney Eric Rosenthal and jointly established by the Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Since 1993, DRI has expanded offices into 3 countries including Serbia, Mexico, and Ukraine.

On June 27, 2009, MindFreedom International, announced that Laurie Ahern had been named president of DRI.

As a result of DRI's work:

Since its founding, DRI has published reports on conditions and experiences of persons with disabilities including:

DRI has had coverage of their work by the following newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, CNN International, BBC World Service, ABC News, Voice of America, NPR, NBC, Univision, Independent (London), Ha'Aretz and others. Moreover, DRI has an article in UNICEF’s 2013 State of the World’s Children Report focused on children with disabilities.

Founded by President Laurie Ahern, DRI has led a campaign worldwide campaign to end the institutionalization of children. The goal of the Worldwide Campaign to End the Institutionalization of Children, is to challenge underlying policies that lead to abuses against children on a global scale. One of the main drivers of institutionalization – particularly in developing countries – is the use of misdirected foreign assistance funding to build new institutions or rebuild old crumbling facilities, instead of providing assistance and access to services for families who want to keep their children at home. Disability Rights International will document the role of international funders in perpetuating the segregation of children with disabilities.

Findings by Disability Rights International on conditions of institutionalized children includes:

– In Mexico, there is almost no official oversight of children in private institutions, and children have literally “disappeared” from public record. Preliminary evidence suggests that children with disabilities have been “trafficked” into forced labor or sex slavery;

– In the United States, children with autism and other mental disabilities living at a residential school in Massachusetts are being given electric shocks as a form of “behavior modification”;

– We have found children with autism in Paraguay and Uruguay locked in cages;

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