The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Practice

Lisa Waddington, Professor and European Disability Forum Chair in European Disability Law, Maastricht University, Anna Lawson, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds

Lisa Waddington holds the European Disability Forum Chair in European Disability Law at the Maastricht Centre for European Law. In 2000, she received an ASPASIA award from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. Between 2004 and 2007 she coordinated a large EU research and education project on European non-discrimination law. She also coordinated the involvement of Maastricht University in the FP7 European Research Agendas expanding Disability Equality project and the Marie Curie Initial Training Network. She is also a member of both the Ius Commune Research School and the Human Rights Research School. Between 1993 and 2004 she was the editor of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law. She is currently a board member of a number of networks and organizations, including the European Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-discrimination.

Anna Lawson is a professor of law at the University of Leeds where she is also the director of its interdisciplinary Centre for Disability Studies. She co-ordinates the newly established Disability Law Hub which sits within the Law School’s Centre for Law and Social Justice and she is a regular advisor to national and international organizations, including parliaments and governments. Anna is a long-standing member of the co-ordinating team of the European Union’s Academic Network of Experts on Disability. Anna is also an adjunct faculty member for the critical disability studies graduate programme at York University, Toronto, and an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple, London. In 2016 she was awarded the Bob Hepple Memorial Award by the Equal Rights Trust in recognition of her contribution to equality and human rights.