State Estimates of Employment Rates for Persons with Disabilities: Report Summary

Statistics on the states’ employment rates for persons with disabilities relative to their non-disabled peers may be of assistance to providers of employment services for persons with disabilities. Such information can help service providers, policy makers, and disability advocacy leaders to assess whether the employment rate of people with disabilities is improving over time, given policy, regulatory, and service intervention strategies. A recent report from the Cornell University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) for Economic Research on Employment Policy for Persons with Disabilities uses data from the March Current Population Survey to estimate employment rates for persons with and without a disability in the non-institutionalized working-age (aged 25 through 61) civilian population in the United States, and for each state and the District of Columbia for the years 1980 through 1998. The employment rate of persons with a disability relative to that of persons without disabilities are found to vary greatly across states. Over the last 20 years the relative employment rate of those with a disability dramatically declined overall and in most states.

Who Participated in School-to-Work Programs in 1998? Technical Report

[Excerpt] This report is based on a survey of 7425 students attending high school during the 1998/99 academic year that asked about recent participation in school-to-work (STW) activities. The survey is the first wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth begun in early 1997 (NLSY97). Ninety-three percent of the youth surveyed in the initial wave were interviewed in the second follow up that we are analyzing here. The statistics reported below are based on weighted data and so represent the population of 15 to 19 year olds attending school during the 1998/99 academic year. Youth who graduated from or dropped out of high school before fall 1998 were not asked questions about participation in school-to-work programs and so are not included in our analysis.

Trafficking in Persons Report

Fifth annual Trafficking in Persons Report prepared by the Department of State and submitted to the U.S. Congress on foreign governments' efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons.

Uzbekistan Supplementary NGO Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Republic of Uzbekistan

[Excerpt] The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was one of the first international instruments to which the Republic of Uzbekistan acceded, and with parliamentary ratification on 9 December 1992, the Republic of Uzbekistan entered into a commitment to observe all the provisions of the CRC and to shoulder its responsibility before the international community. As a result various legislative, administrative and other steps have been taken by the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan with a view to bringing the State policy and legislation on children to be in line with the provisions as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Constitution incorporates the fundamental provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the current stage in the restructuring of the country’s social and economic development, solid foundations have been laid for the conduct of significant democratic reforms based on a recognition of the innate worth of the individual (including the child) and of the unconditional respect of his or her rights and freedoms. Until recently, the State acted as the main guarantor of the provision of all social services, however the process of the transition (political/economic) to a market economy has entailed the development of new economic relations with a reduction in the allocation of state resources for the provision of social services to children. The efforts of the government made so far to bring the state policy and legislation on the child to be in line with the provisions enshrined in the convention on the rights of the child are commendable; never the less, the implementations of all these policies and laws into practice needs a lot to desire as there are a number of ongoing child rights violations. The National Report has fundamentally overlooked a number of child rights privileges enshrined in the CRC that have not yet been realised, or those rights that have been eroded since the independence. These shortcomings need to be noted for consideration so that the state steps up its efforts to enact new laws and/or to enforce the existing rules and regulations required for the protection and implementation of these child rights, and to improve the overall situation for children in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Annual Report

[Excerpt] The Commission is deeply concerned that some Chinese government policies designed to address growing social unrest and bolster Communist Party authority are resulting in a period of declining human rights for China’s citizens. The Commission identified limited improvements in the Chinese government’s human rights practices in 2004, but backward-stepping government decisions in 2005 and 2006 are leading the Commission to reevaluate the Chinese leadership’s commitment to additional human rights improvements in the near term. In its 2005 Annual Report, the Commission highlighted increased government restrictions on Chinese citizens who worship in state-controlled venues or write for state-controlled publications. These restrictions remain in place, and in some cases, the government has strengthened their enforcement.