The fundamental human rights goal of LSN is to reduce the barriers to inclusion and decrease discrimination against landmine survivors and people with disabilities. LSN Outreach Workers begin human rights education as soon after an injury as possible — often the first time they meet a survivor — because this learning process is critical to building confidence and a vocabulary of hope.

For many survivors, the depression that follows a landmine injury seems timeless, infinite, all-encompassing.  The idea of a great day, a hopeful day can become a faint and receding memory.  But a visit from an Outreach Worker often reassures survivors that they are still a whole person, deserving full citizens’ rights.  LSN outreach prepares them to become self-advocates for basic rights such as healthcare, education, and employment.

Rights For All: Disability Rights are Human Rights
LSN plays a prominent role on the world advocacy stage, supporting the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  This landmark treaty, affecting 600 million people with disabilities worldwide, will build a global framework of international law — a foundation to create, change, and enforce laws that promote human rights for all.

For the first time, the U.N. has formally included nongovernmental organizations such as LSN in the drafting process.  This historic action reinforced the disability community’s principle of “nothing about us without us.”  LSN has been an active participant in drafting the treaty since 2002.