I came to England 1938 as one of 10,000 children escaping the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany. An excellent education at Merchant Taylors' School Crosby was followed by National Service in Germany and a scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge to read History and Psychology.
After ten years as an NHS clinical psychologist working with people with intellectual disabilities and children on the autistic spectrum and five years as a lecturer in psychology at London University, I became the first Director of the Hester Adrian Research Centre which researched ways in which people with intellectual disabilities could be helped to learn and live in the community.
My human rights journey started in 1980 when I represented Inclusion International at the yearly United Nations round table consultations on disability alongside other international Disabled Persons Organisations who demanded an international treaty to protect and promote the rights of people with disabilities following earlier Conventions for women, children and ethnic minorities.
In 2002 the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence asked me to work with them to write 'Promoting the Human Rights of Children with Disabilities' during the period when the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was being negotiated. Since then, I have continued to research and promote the CRPD.
When I received a diagnosis of dementia in 2006, I was struck by a lack of awareness of human rights and the CRPD. This changed when Dementia Alliance International was founded in 2014 and Kate Swaffer included Access to CRPD as one of three demands at WHO's First Ministerial Conference on Dementia in 2015 and when Alzheimer's Disease International adopted a human rights policy including access to CRPD and other Conventions. ADI and DAI are now working together to help its members to translate aspiration to achievement.
More information in 'Thinking Globally Acting Locally: A Personal Journey'.
