History

النسخة العربية

The Disability Rights Fund (DRF) was started as the result of conversations between philanthropic staff and the disability community during the Ad-Hoc Committee meetings leading up to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Recognizing the potential impact of a human rights framework on the largest minority group in the world, donor representatives conceptualized the Fund as a response to the window of opportunity opened by the process towards the adoption of the Convention. Persons with disabilities comprise an estimated 650 million people or ten percent of the world’s population.  

Subsequent discussions between grantmakers during meetings of the International Human Rights Funders Group disability working group led to the conception of the DRF as a pooled effort of multiple donors.

In 2007, a consultant began to develop structures and build relationships with other donors and the disability rights field.

After a collaborative process with the international DPO community, a Framework for the Fund was finalized in December 2007. DRF started operations as a project of the Tides Center in January 2008.