Towards Visibility of Women with Disabilities in the UN Convention

Abstract

A discussion paper on the integration of women´s issues in the “Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities“

Edited by Disabled Peoples´ International (DPI)

Written by Dr. Sigrid Arnade and Sabine Häfner

Berlin, July 2005

A. Women with disabilities face severe violations of human rights.

The situation of women with disabilities worldwide is characterized by two aspects: They face double discrimination because of their disability and their gender and often triple discrimination in developing countries because of their poverty. Furthermore there is a general lack of data broken down to gender and disability, and research concerning the issues „women and disability“ is just in the early stages. Thus women and girls with disabilities often remain „invisible citizens“ in the mainstream policy, often unconsidered in disability affairs as well as in women affairs.

Being female is a risk factor for getting a disability because of

• gender based violence, 
• Female Genital Mutilation (FMG), 
• the high risk of women
• to get injured by armed conflicts and landmines
• to suffer acute malnutrition
• to face inadequate water and sanitation
• to receive insufficient medical care
• to be infected by HIV
• to suffer from depression, panic or eating disorders.

Girls and women with disabilities face unique barriers such as

• selective abortion,
• forced sterilization,
• physical and sexual violence,
• insufficient literacy and education,
• insufficient health care and rehabilitation services,
• insufficient vocational training and employment,
• insufficient income, cultural and social status.

B. Disabled women are not a group

Disabled women and girls represent at least half of "people with disabilities" and not a separate group. Therefore it is an inappropriate argument that other groups want to be mentioned in the Convention in case it contains gender issues.
 
Political developments and achievements in policy on female rights during the last years have to be kept in mind: The Fourth World Conference on Women took place in 1995, later on the General Assembly adopted the resolution 52/100 in 1997/1998 and meanwhile a majority of Member States committed themselves to the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming. Thus, there is an international consensus that gender issues are part of the UN's work and that has to have an immediate influence on binding international legislation and especially on disability policy. 

C. Strategy: a twin-track approach

As there are no legally binding UN documents existing that refer to women with disabilities it is a essential that women with disabilities obtain a strong position in the „Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities“. A single article referring to women´s issues is insufficient and in fact may be counterproductive as the example of the “Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)” strongly indicates. In fact women´s issues need to be covered throughout the Convention.

Considering all proposals a strategy consisting of two points (a twin-track approach) is suggested and the second point is regarded as indispensable:

1. The principles of gender mainstreaming, the principle of equality between men and women and the need for particular actions to eliminate the discriminations of women with disabilities must be mentioned in the beginning of the Convention either in a separate article or integrated in the articles 2 and 4.

2. All draft articles of the Convention having a key position for women with disabilities must be complemented by the gender perspective. To identify and address the needs of women with disabilities, the Convention must include the gender aspect as intended in UN Resolution 52/100 from 1997/98. It is the only way to motivate States Parties to consider gender issues, and specifically women’s issues while taking action and reporting.

D. Contact

dinah.radtke@zsl-erlangen.de (DPI vice chair, chair of the DPI Women´s Committee)
sabine.haefner@sovd.de, s.arnade@nw3.de (the authors)

Click here to download the complete paper in MS Word format.

2005-07-22 00:00:00

Back to Top

Previous Page
Print this Page
Site Preferences
Send to Friend

© 2005 - Disabled Peoples International
All Rights Reserved - Used by Permission