Upsidedownworld.org is an online magazine covering activism and politics in Latin America. I have been reading the magazine since having come to El Salvador to help me get perspective on the politics of Central America, and I have been keeping a sharp eye on articles about El Salvador. The topics lately have covered the upcoming election politics, the remittance industry, and gang violence, which is similar to what is covered in the conservative dailys El Diario de Hoy and La Prensa Grafica. There is another paper which is distributed only in the afternoons, called El Diario co Latino, and it tends to cover a wider range of issues, and with a less conservative bent.

However, in reading the online magazine and the papers each day, there is a dearth of information about the disability movement in El Salvador. I then began doing research into disability issues over the last twenty years and found little information outside of LSN that specifically discusses the evolution of the movement in the national context. So I decided to write a short history of the movement, and sat down with the LSN Director, Jesus Martinez, to hash out some of the smaller details.

The article, “A Recent History of the Disability Rights Movement in El Salvador” was published for upsidedownworld.org, and will hopefully give readers some deeper insight into the disability movement in El Salvador. To read the full article, see http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1384/74/.
Here are the first two paragraphs to peak your interest:

“Many argue that El Salvador has come a long way towards trying to repair its disabled past by declaring itself mine-free in 1994, implementing the 2001 National Disability Rights law and ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007. The Permanent Table of the Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights (PDDH) and disability rights civil society organizations such as the Landmine Survivors Network have led the struggle in Central America to promote the rights of people with disabilities and guarantee them “free and equal access to services” through the construction of accessible infrastructure and much-needed legislation.

And yet, El Salvador has only made nominal progress in implementing disability legislation and awareness. A census tailored toward understanding disability demographics in the country, implementation of current legislation, and a greater emphasis on disability rights as human rights will help to pave the inaccessible pathway towards more inclusion for all. The upcoming 2009 elections may also have a significant impact on the provision of disability rights in El Salvador…” http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1384/74/