Rados Keravica (ESR 1)

ESR Project Title: The Voices of Children and Youth

Rados Keravica BSc. Economics;
MSc. International Economics; M.A. Human Rights Law

Centre for Disability Studies, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds

Office tel.: +44 113 34 38271 Mobile: +44 7367886681

E-mail(s): R.Keravica@leeds.ac.uk ; ssrke@leeds.ac.uk

Rados is a Postgraduate Researcher in the Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds and a Ph.D. candidate. He is a holder of M.A. degree in Human Rights Law from the Central European University (CEU), Budapest. He had previously obtained MSc and BSc degrees in International Economics and Business from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. His M.A.

Rados has extensive experience of disability rights activism and advocacy in Serbia and at the European and international levels. From 2011 to 2016 he worked for Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) as the Regional Officer for Europe. DRPI, as a global collaborative project led by York University, Toronto aimed to support disability movements at the national levels to monitor CRPD implementation through its holistic, participatory human rights monitoring methodology. He supported country monitoring projects in 6 countries in Eastern Europe and held over 20 trainings internationally for DPOs and CSOs on CRPD monitoring using DRPI monitoring methodology and supported drafting the submissions to various international human rights bodies and mechanisms including UPR, CRPD Committee, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities.

In 2014, he joined the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) and was one of the founders of ENIL Youth Network – the first pan-European network of young disabled people. He served as ENIL Youth Network Board Member from 2015 – 2017 and ENIL Youth Network Chair 2017 – 2019 and is currently ENIL’s Board Member. He was a co-facilitator of several ENIL’s study sessions for young disabled people from Europe alongside other ENIL Youth members covering topics of political participation and sexuality and relationships of young disabled people. He was also part of ENIL’s team of trainers at the CRPD training for civil society and governments of ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) countries, held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2017.

In 2017 he worked as a Disability Rights Specialist in a consultancy capacity for the UN Human Rights Team in Serbia taking part in impact evaluation of Serbian National Anti-Discrimination Strategy. From 2018 to 2019 he worked as Human Rights Project Associate in the UN Human Rights Team in Serbia coordinating the Joint UN project “Autonomy, Voice and Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Serbia”. The project was supported by the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was focusing on legal capacity regime reform, empowerment of women and girls with disabilities and employment of persons with disabilities.

Currently, Rados works as Marie Sklodowska-Curie Early-Stage Researcher as part of the DARE project at the Centre for Disability Studies, the University of Leeds under the theme: Voices of Children and Youth with Disabilities. More closely, Rados’s research is focusing on the rights of children with disabilities to be heard in the matters which concern them and the synergies between CRC Article 12 and CRC Article 7.

Research

Research Interests

Human Rights Law, Sociology, Disability Studies, Equality, Disability Advocacy, Childhood Policy, Children with Disabilities, Legal Capacity, Self-advocacy, Independent Living, Social Services.

Other training:

International Summer School, Master course in Human Rights, University of Oslo (2016);
Training of Trainers in Human Rights Education, Council of Europe (2017);
Disability Leaders of Tomorrow (D-LOT) project, European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) (2015/2016);

Strengthening the engagement of civil society with UNCRPD Committee, European Disability Forum and UN OHCHR (2015);
Study session: Understanding and countering multiple discrimination faced by young people with disabilities in Europe, European Network on Independent Living (2014);

Publications

Reports

Andjelkovic V., Keravica R., “Monitoring of individual experiences of people with intellectual disabilities in Serbia”, Serbian Association for Promotion of Inclusion, 2018
Andjelkovic V., Keravica R., “Monitoring of the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Republic of Serbia”, Philanthropy Foundation, 2016;
Lončar G., Keravica R., Danilović I., “Accessible elections – Participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life in Serbia”, Center for Society Orientation, 2014;
Keravica R., Lončar G., Vasić S., Holistic report “Monitor your rights” – Monitoring of rights of persons with disabilities in the Republic of Serbia, Center for Society Orientation, Belgrade 2013.

Book Chapters

Rioux M., Pinto P., Wakene D., Keravica R., Viera J. Reinventing Activism: Evidence-Based Participatory Monitoring as a Tool for Social Change, in: The New Disability Activism: Current Trends, Shifting Priorities and (Uncertain) Future Directions. (Eds) Maria Berghs, Tsitsi Chataika, Yahya & Kudakwashe Dube, Routledge Publishers. 2019;
Keravica R. (2015). “Monitoring of Social Services for Persons with Disabilities in Socio-Economic Context of Eastern Europe as a Tool for Enhancing Social Inclusion”, in: Building power out of evidence: Disability, rights monitoring, and social change. (Eds) Marcia Rioux, Paula Pinto, & Gillian Parekh, Canadian Scholars Press.;
Rioux M., Pinto P., Keravica R., Sabo C., Viera J. Disability Rights in the context of the Global South: building sustainability through an emancipatory, evidence-based approach, Research Institute for Health and Social Change Manchester Metropolitan University. 2014.

INVITATION FOR DISABLED CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR PARENTS / CARERS FROM ENGLAND TO TAKE PART IN THE RESEARCH

I am doing academic research in disability studies at the University of Leeds investigating experiences with elective orthopaedic treatments of disabled children and their family members.

I am inviting disabled children and young people from England aged 10 to 22 and their parents to take part in the research.

If you take part, we would talk about things like how you decided to pursue some treatments, how healthcare professionals treated you and talked to you, what supports you had to make a decision if any, whether you felt you had enough information to make a decision, how health professionals communicated complex medical information to you and similar.

I am hoping to use research findings to work further with hospitals and healthcare systems to improve their services in England and abroad to make sure that families and children, in particular, have the chance to have their say, are given choices, are listened to by health professionals and are adequately informed on available treatment options.

Those people who are interested to take part can write to me at R.Keravica@leeds.ac.uk or can ring me at 07367886681 to get more information.

All research participants, young people and parents alike, will get a small token of appreciation from me to show my gratitude for their time – shopping vouchers of 20 GBP.