- Theresa Degener is a renowned personality in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- She is a professor of law and disability studies at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany.
- She is instrumental to conception, negotiation, and adoption of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Theresia Degener is the chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and a professor of law and disability studies at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany.
During more than two decades of activism, research, and writing, Degener has advised the German government and parliament, regional and international disabled persons organizations, as well as European Union and UN bodies on disability rights. Degener’s 2001 study on the idea of a convention on disability rights (co-authored with former advisory board member Gerard Quinn), which was submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is widely seen as a milestone that led to the conception, negotiation, and adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.