Odelia Fitoussi
Odelia Fitoussi (born 1977) is an art therapist (M.A.) and advocate of persons with disabilities (PWDs). She is the first person to be elected to serve on behalf of Israel in the UN Committee of Experts on Disability (CRPD). She currently serves as Chairperson of the Advisory Committee to the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the Israeli Ministry of Justice (2013-) and is co-director of the Civil Forum for Promoting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Fitoussi was born in Israel in May 1977. She obtained her M.A. in Art Therapy from Lesley University in 2009, a B.A. in criminology, Sociology, and Anthropology from Bar-Ilan University in 1998, and is a graduate of the Machon Shaharit "120 Program for Multicultural Political Leadership" (2015). She is a lecturer, facilitator, and art workshops coordinator on PWDs issues, such as self-advocacy, access to services, human diversity, dealing with crises, making choices, and more. She is the first Israeli Candidate to run for a seat on the UN Committee of Experts for People with Disabilities. She was born with SMA type2- Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which affects the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, and as