AAPD to Present 2008 Henry B. Betts Award to International Human Rights Disability Advocate Eric...( Award Presentation to be Made at ...),Health

Award Presentation to be Made at Annual AAPD Leadership Gala March 5, 2008, National Building Museum, Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) announces that the prestigious 2008 Henry B. Betts Award will be presented to Eric Rosenthal for pioneering the field of international human rights advocacy for people with disabilities and bringing unprecedented international awareness to their concerns. He established and is Executive Director of Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI). Through MDRI, Rosenthal has investigated human rights conditions in 23 countries. He has trained and supported the work of disability activists around the world to fight these abuses.

The Henry B. Betts Award is named in honor of Henry B. Betts, M.D., a pioneer in the field of rehabilitation medicine who started his career with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in 1964, making it the base for his career as an advocate for people with physical disabilities and leader in the field of rehabilitation medicine, and who has devoted himself to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities. The award program was created in 1989 and is funded by the Prince Charitable Trusts.

"Eric Rosenthal has helped to galvanize international attention to the human rights violations that people with significant disabilities are subjected to every day," says AAPD President and CEO Andrew J. Imparato. "His vision, passion, strategic advocacy, and belief in self-determination and human dignity are changing policies and changing lives in a disability movement that is increasingly connected across the globe."

Rosenthal grew up with manic depression in his family. He was interested in psychiatry when he entered college, but after working in a psychiatric ward became uncomfortable with the coercion he observed. After law school he went to Mexico to document abuses against ind
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