Upcoming Events
Mad Café – 30 April 2026
Mad Café is our monthly virtual open-format space for connection and exchange among disabled and Mad activists, organisers, and allies.
3 pm – 4 pm CEST – Breaking the Illusion: Human Rights, Power, and Global Solidarity. A conversation with Craig Mokhiber
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?
Craig Mokhiber is a human rights lawyer and expert. After 30 years at the UN, Craig resigned from his post as the Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in October 2023 because of the UN’s failure to stand for human rights within the context of the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. He has steadfastly criticised the illegal actions of USA and Israel and has provided critical analyses of the failures of international law and human rights institutions and discourses in this current moment.
4 pm – 5 pm CEST – Community Meet-Up
International Sign interpretation and English CART will be provided.
Join us for either space or both.
Past Events
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 