Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, Chilean Lawyer and Advocate
Background
Ms. Maria Soledad, a blind lawyer specializing in disability law cases, was one of the selected participants in the Beijing+5 Training & Advocacy Initiative for Young, Disabled Women, organized in New York in June 2000. She responded to an interview in June 2001 about the impact of the experience and how it helped to shape her subsequent disability work in Chile. Due to her outstanding leadership qualities demonstrated during the Beijing+5 training, Ms. Soledad was asked to serve as the local organizer by the InterAmerican Institute on Disability for disability seminars held in Santiago during March 2001 at the annual meeting of the InterAmerican Development Bank.
Interview Highlights
"Having been able to attend the Beijing+5 Conference made a huge impact on my life and personal development. Also, it opened a window into a woman's world as a whole, and towards its diverse social and cultural roles. It also allowed me to contact other women with disabilities with whom we not only share the same gender, but a similar outlook as to our reality and the great possibilities we have to work together.
"I believe Beijing +5 was an important step in setting those objectives we have to accomplish in our individual countries. Moreover, it did allow us to realize that we are not alone in those tasks we usually accomplish in isolation while advocating for disabilities in our widespread national settings.
"Among the diverse ways this Beijing+5 experience impacted me, I have to emphasize how powerful it was, in those first few days, to be positioned within the international panorama as women with disabilities, but at the same time equal to other women advocates there in New York. For the whole group, this brought about a new approach towards a collective that most of us were not aware of or felt a part of before.
"I have maintained contact with some of the Beijing+5 participants.
Projects since Beijing+5
"Since Beijing+5, I have participated in or run several projects, but I will mention only the most important ones:
Legal Program on Disabilities: EQUALITY VS. DISCRIMINATION. Its goals are :
To promote the rights of people with disabilities; and To offer free legal help and defense agaiinst discrimination as result of disabilities.
"This program is located within the Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Diego Portales (Diego Portales School of Law, Santiago, Chile), and it offers lectures, seminars, meetings, printed, audio and Braille materials.
"It has also opened the School to research on significant discrimination cases resulting from disabilities. Both lawyers, professors and students participate in this research preparing the corresponding administrative and legal documents.
Design of an elective course on the "Rights of 'at risk' communities, and non discrimination as a subject that stems from Human Rights". This course is being prepared for the second semester, 2001.
"This course will develop the student's critical thinking by giving them the necessary knowledge on the topic as explained in the international jurisprudence and internal legal systems.
Cycle of presentations at municipal level on the rights of people with disabilities and the protection and defense systems regarding discrimination.
Coordinate organizations for and by people with visual disabilities from the Metro Region (Santiago, Chile).
"It was vitally important to set up a permanent venue for meetings and information distribution for people with visual impairments, since none were present. By channeling volunteer contributions through this venue for social participation, a newsletter on visual disabilities has been published both in paper, Braille and audio. It has organized a project to transform the underground rail system to serve the needs of people with visual impairments it is also supporting the opening of a Center for Visual Disabilities in Santiago, something that did not exist to this day.
Two projects are being done in legal - political research: Disability in Chile: An Issue to be Addressed Immediately; and Report on the Future of People with Disabilities throughout the World.
We are planning an activity with women with disabilities for November 2001, where they will receive accessible material on women, disabilities, and civil society.
"I am the author of said projects, and I serve as Coordinator, or Director.
Clearly, these projects use approaches learned at Beijing+5, and all of them incorporate the international worldview by people with visual impairment, gender perspective and that of women with disabilities.
Value of Beijing+5 Event
"I think that conferences such as Beijing+5 and the experience exchanged among peers served as a great and qualitative support, providing us with a clear outlook that allows us to act as agents for important social changes.
"Obviously, this Conference allowed us participants the possibility to replicate and produce numerous activities. This is a valuable opportunity to introduce new perceptions of the world we live in, encouraging us to build a common and transcendent road in the socio-cultural evolution of contemporary civilization.
"Myself, I would be very happy to have an active live as that I had in New York. I am now sharing all I learned, with new enthusiasm and output levels."
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