Autistic Minority International is the first and only autism self-advocacy organization active at the global political level. The NGO, founded as a non-profit association under Swiss law in 2013 and headquartered in Geneva, aims to advance the interests of autistics worldwide at and through the United Nations, World Health Organization, human rights treaty bodies, and other international organizations.
We believe that autistic self-advocacy is about more than disability rights. Estimated at one percent of the world's population, or seventy million people, autistics deserve the same protection and rights the international community affords to ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities as well as indigenous peoples. There is an autistic minority in every country on Earth. Only minority status will put an end to discrimination and marginalization and permit all of us to be open about our condition without fear of repercussions. Autism is a distinct culture and identity. The only one we know.
For that reason, we seek to network autism self-advocacy organizations worldwide and act as a focal point for capacity building and the exchange of best practice on how to engage governments at the national, regional, and local level. We promote and assist in the participation of national and local self-advocacy groups at UN conferences and in UN processes and mechanisms. Where no effective national self-advocacy organizations exist, we will establish such. We are open to collaboration with UN member states, the UN system, the wider NGO community, autism charities run by non-autistics, researchers particularly in the social sciences and international law, the private sector, and individuals with a view to shaping global priorities and lifting our concerns onto the UN's agenda.
