Upcoming Events
Webinar – Building the world we want: Abolition in practice
On 10 June 2026, 4 pm CEST, we will host the final session of our three-part webinar series on “Building a New World: An Invitation to Abolitionist Thinking“.
We will be joined by Ari Lutzker (YoNoFui, Argentina) and Chelsea Jackson (Cradle Community, UK) about their experience of building “life-affirming institutions and systems” through mutual aid, care work, and transformative justice.
Bringing together activists and organisers embedded in different social movements, the webinar series explores questions such as: What does an abolitionist framework actually mean? Where does it emerge from? What can we learn from its successes and failures? How does it apply to different issues and regions? You can find more information about the series here.
You can access the recording of the first session here and the second session recording is available here.
International Sign interpretation, Real time captioning, English-Spanish interpretation will be provided.
Past Events
Webinar – Abolition across struggles: prisons, police, and beyond
3 June 2026
In the second session of our three-part webinar series titled “Building a New World: An Invitation to Abolitionist Thinking” we were joined by Kokila Annamalai (Transformative Justice Collective, Singapore) and Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu (Project LETS, USA) to talk about their practice of abolitionist politics within anti-death penalty activism, labour rights, and psychiatric abolition spaces; what abolition looks like in these different struggles; how it operates in practice; and what activists from different movements can learn from each other.
The webinar recording is available at this link. You can also find more information about the webinar series here.
Mad Café – The Process and Politics of Literary Translation. A fire-side chat with Jayasree Kalathil
28 May 2026
Stories shape how we understand the world. Translated literature makes it possible for us to encounter and access worlds far beyond our immediate contexts. Translators do more than carry words across languages. They carry the context, the culture, the history and memory, as well as the rhythms and tones which populate and reveal the social and political fabric of a world to a different audience. What gets translated, how, and for whom is never neutral. Every translation involves choices, and these are influenced by and have the potential to influence hierarchies of language and culture.
In this session, we spoke with Jayasree Kalathil, an award-winning author and translator, about the craft and politics of literary translation.
An informal community meet-up space followed this discussion.
Webinar – What is abolition and why it matters?
27 May 2026
We launched our three-part webinar series titled “Building a New World: An Invitation to Abolitionist Thinking” with a conversation between Dr Stephanie Davis (Healing Justice London, UK) and Dr Priya Raghavan (Institute of Development Studies, UK) about the history and roots of abolitionist activism, what it means for contemporary activism, its practice in different struggles and regions, and the debates and difficulties within and beyond abolitionist activism.
The webinar recording is available at this link. You can also find more information about the webinar series here.
Mad Café – Breaking the Illusion: Human Rights, Power, and Global Solidarity. A conversation with Craig Mokhiber
30 April 2026
The international human rights system is facing a profound crisis of credibility. Selective application of international law, institutional inaction, and visible double standards have exposed the vast chasm between the universal language of rights and the realities of global politics. When global institutions fail to act, or act unevenly, in the face of grave injustice, the illusion of a “rules-based international order” falls apart. This moment invites a deeper reckoning. What does it mean when international law is applied selectively? Are these failures specific to this political moment, or do they reveal deeper structural limits within the architecture and discourse of international human rights itself? As the limits of global bodies are exposed and confidence in them weaken, what forms of internationalism remain credible? What other forms of transnational solidarity can we turn to?
An informal community meet-up space followed this discussion.
Mad Café – When the International Order Fractures, What Happens to Disability Rights? A conversation with Catalina Devandas
28 March 2026
The international order is in crisis. States are retreating from multilateral engagement. Global institutions are increasingly criticised, defunded, or side-lined, and their relevance is openly debated. For disability movements, which have invested decades in building international visibility and legal standards — particularly through the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities — this raises urgent questions. What happens to rights frameworks when the institutions that host them weaken? What role can the UN and other global institutions still play in advancing disability rights? And what does this moment mean for grassroots disability organising?
An informal community meet-up space followed this discussion.
Workshop – Solidarity Against Criminalisation and Institutionalisation
4 November 2025
Together with the Centre for Mental Health, Human Rights, and Social Justice, and the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy at the University of Essex, we held a closed workshop on solidarity against criminalisation and institutionalisation.
Over 30 activists, organisers, and researchers working at the intersections of disability, mental health, harm reduction, homelessness, and criminalisation came together to analyse shared threats and explore collective responses to securitisation, medicalisation, and institutionalisation.
In 2026, we hope to continue this conversation in partnership with those who attended the workshop and beyond.
Webinar – Holding Each Other: Care, Trust, and Community During Crisis
29 October 2025
In the final session of our webinar series on “Disability Activism Under Pressure: Resistance and Resilience in Authoritarian Contexts“, Nazlı Türker (CIVICUS), María Paz Martínez Rubio (Anti-Normality Club) and Ly Xinzhèn M. Zhāngsūn Brown (The Autistic People of Color Fund) explored what collective care looks like amid exhaustion and fear: how we keep choosing each other, how we build safety without silence, and how care remains a form of resistance.
Read our summary of the session here.
Webinar – Solidarity in the Face of Authoritarianism: What Cross-movement Activism Demands
15 October 2025
In the fifth session of our webinar series on “Disability Activism Under Pressure: Resistance and Resilience in Authoritarian Contexts“, Negin Shiraghaei (Azadi Network) moderated a conversation between Nakijoba Joyce (Diverse Empowerment Foundation), Shaharzad Akbar (Rawadari), and Luciana Viegas (Vidas Negras com Deficiência Importam). Drawing on their experiences of working across different movements, we explored what solidarity means, how to practice it in our activism, and the tensions and challenges of cross-movement activism.
Read our summary of the session here.
Workshop and Discussion – Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
14 October 2025
At the RISE Leadership Programme organised by anti-racist organisation, zedela, we held a screening of the film, Crip Camp, and facilitated a discussion on its lessons for contemporary activism and organising—-how a group of people transformed shared experiences into a movement, built alliances, took collective action, and sustained their advocacy over time. The session was attended by emerging anti-racist activists from across Germany.
Webinar – Re-thinking How We Come Together: Building Diverse Structures of Organising
1 October 2025
In the fourth session of our webinar series, “Disability Activism Under Pressure: Resistance and Resilience in Authoritarian Contexts“, we explored how movements can resist fragmentation and rethink the very ways we organise, lead, and sustain collective power. The session brought together Emilie Palamy Pradichit (Manushya Foundation, Thailand), Loan Tran (Rising Majority, U.S.), and Silvestre Barragán (ALCE, Colombia) — three organisers who each, in very different contexts, are building communities that defy hierarchy and centre lived experience.
Read our summary of the session here.
Webinar – Funding Futures: Rethinking Current Models and Finding Alternatives
17 September 2025
The third session of our webinar series, “Disability Activism Under Pressure: Resistance and Resilience in Authoritarian Contexts” focussed on resourcing and funding our movements. Moderated by Lizzie Kiama (This Ability), our speakers Dee Bhattacharya (AWID), Marija Jakovljević (Dalan Fund), and Fredrick Ouko (ADD International), had an open and critical discussion about current funding systems, their failures, and the possibilities of thinking about resourcing differently. Complementing this discussion, we launched WHEELING, a satirical website designed to draw attention to structural barriers, extractive practices, and contradictions in disability funding processes.
Read our summary of the session here.
Webinar – Operating in an Age of Surveillance: Building Security Practices
3 September 2025
The second session of our webinar series, “Disability Activism Under Pressure: Resistance and Resilience in Authoritarian Contexts“, was moderated by Maryangel Garcia-Ramos (Women Enabled International). Our speakers, Amir Rashidi (Miaan Group), Akwe Amosu (The Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights), and Faith Obafemi (Fezzant), came together to share their experiences of navigating escalating surveillance, digital privacy, and the accessibility challenges of cybersecurity.
Read our summary of the session here.
Webinar – The Authoritarian Blueprint in Action: How States Are Targeting Activism
20 August 2025
In our first public event and the opening session of our 6-part webinar series, “Disability Activism Under Pressure: Resistance and Resilience in Authoritarian Contexts” we brought together Celeste Fernández (ACIJ, Argentina), Noah Bullock (Cristosal, El Salvador), and Shezana Hafiz (CAGE International, UK) to discuss the tools and tactics of authoritarianism. Rooted in their experiences, the speakers reflected on how states target activism and what it means to keep organising under shrinking civic space.
Read our summary of the session here.
Mad Thinking 