Michelle Brathwaite United Nations National Human Rights Officer
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Presented on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – what it means to have ratified the Convention at the Down Syndrome Family Network’s Conference Monday 21st March 2016.
Ms. Brathwaite earned a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College where she majored in International Relations with a focus on Sustainable Development. She earned her law degree from the University of Southern California where she studied the way in which the law affects minorities, women and impoverished communities.
After graduating law school, Ms. Brathwaite worked for a number of years as a corporate transactional lawyer in California and worked as a legal consultant in Barbados, California and Toronto. While working in California, Ms. Brathwaite was an active member of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.
In November of 2012, Ms. Brathwaite joined the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the OECS as National Human Rights Officer. In her role, Ms. Brathwaite’s primary mandate is to work with Caribbean governments and civil society organizations to be responsive to the UN International Human Rights System, to assist Caribbean governments in implementing its human rights obligations and to raise awareness around human rights issues in the Caribbean region.
Click here to download “The Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities: meaning, rights and ratification.”
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