DRI documents conditions, publishes reports, and promotes international oversight of the rights of persons with disabilities.
DRI helps empower these activists to become spokespersons for women with psychosocial disabilities at the local and national level.
Guatemala— After documenting sexual abuse and trafficking of women and girls with disabilities in a Guatemalan psychiatric hospital, DRI filed a petition with before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
DRI is currently working with the Guatemalan government to ensure that an end is brought to the sexual abuse and trafficking against women and girls.
DRI's local office in Ukraine also reaches out to and empowers women recovering from eating disorders—a population which is at high-risk for psychiatric institutionalization.
DRI's report, which showed pictures of emaciated children and adults tied to beds, called many of the abuses "tantamount to torture".
Five days after the report released, members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture arrived to assess the problem of abuse in mental institutions in Serbia.
Charles Bronfman Award (2013) DRI was awarded the Charles Bronfman Award recognizing DRI's work in awakening the world's conscience to protect the human rights of children and adults with disabilities; documenting the segregation and abusive treatment of people with disabilities in dozens of countries; training and inspiring disability and human rights activists; and appealing to governments and world bodies to protect a vulnerable and overlooked population.