Disability Rights Partnerships

1
Disability Rights Partnerships

• Gender, Disability and Development
• Presented by Therese Sands
• Senior Advocate
• People with Disability Australia

2
Disability Rights Partnerships and Women with
Disability

• Our capacity building partnerships aim to
  develop a strong voice for women with disability
  within
• - organisations of people with disability (DPOs)
• - womens organisations
• - development practice
• By
• - incorporating principles of gender
  mainstreaming
• - facilitating specific projects for women with
  disability

3
Facts about Women with Disability

• Women with disability face a greater negative
  impact from a lack of human rights and the
  inter-relationship between poverty and
  disability
• (World Bank, Asia Development Bank, UNESCAP)
• - at greater risk and more vulnerable to
  violence
• (2-3 times more likely to experience physical
  and sexual abuse)
• - less likely to be able to exercise
  reproductive rights
• - reduced opportunity to enter marriage and
  family life
• - more likely to experience absolute poverty
• - higher rates of illiteracy
• - less likely to have access to education,
  employment, health care and income generation
  projects

4
Intersection between Gender and Disability

• Disability is both a cause and a consequence of
  poverty
• (Disability, Poverty and Development, DFID, UK,
  2000)
• Poverty tied to gender inequality
• (UNFPA, UNIFEM)
• Conflict and war cause disability 80 of
  civilians killed or disabled in conflict are
  women and children
• (Womens National Commission, UK)
• Gender-based injury is a cause of disability e.g.
  every minute, 30 women are injured / disabled
  from childbirth
• Gender-based violence (e.g. domestic violence,
  rape / sexual assault, female genital mutilation)
  is a cause of disability

5
Women with Disability at the Margins

• Despite the negative impact of the intersection
  between gender and disability, the specific human
  rights and development needs of women with
  disability are generally not addressed by
• - womens organisations
• - disability organisations (service providers
  and DPOs)
• - development programs (mainstream,
  gender-specific and disability-specific programs)

6
Gender, Disability, Human Rights and Development

• Women with disability have not benefited from the
  human rights framework
• - International Bill of Human Rights
• - UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of
  Opportunities for People with Disabilities
  (Standard Rules)
• - UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
  of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
• - Beijing Declaration and Beijing Platform for
  Action
• - Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

7
Gender, Disability, Human Rights and Development

• Community based rehabilitation (CBR)
• - women with disability are not specifically
  identified in discussions concerning CBR,
  including how women with disability are equal
  partners in CBR practice.
• Articulation of the rights of women with
  disability
• - UN Convention on the Rights of People with
  Disability ??
• - UN Biwako Millennium Framework for Action
  towards an inclusive, barrier-free and rights
  based society for persons with disabilities in
  Asia and the Pacific (BMF)

8
Biwako Millennium Framework

• Priority Areas for Action
• Self-help organizations of persons with
  disabilities and related family and parent
  associations
• Women with disabilities
• Early detection, early intervention and education
• Training and employment, including
  self-employment
• Access to built environments and public transport
• Access to information and communications,
  including information, communication and
  assistive technologies
• Poverty alleviation through capacity-building,
  social security and sustainable livelihood
  programmes

9
Biwako Millennium Framework and Women with
Disability

• Women with disability are recognised as a
  specific priority area of action in the Biwako
  Millennium Framework (BMF)
• - Governments to adopt anti-discrimination
  measures to protect women with disability
• - DPOs to adopt policies to promote full
  participation of women with disability
• - National mainstream womens organisations to
  include women with disability in their membership

10
Disability Rights Partnerships and Women with
Disability

• Disability Rights Partnerships uses
  interconnected approaches in line with the BMF
• - support the formation, and participate in
  networks of women with disability
• (e.g. Women with Disabilities Pasifika Network
  WWDPN PNG WWDPN)
• - support and advocate for the full and equal
  inclusion of women with disability in DPOs
• (e.g. Pacific Disability Forum PDF)
• - engage with mainstream womens human rights
  and development organisations

11
Gender, Disability and DevelopmentWhat next?

• Women with disability
• - want in-country human rights training,
  leadership and skills development, and advocacy
  training
• - need funding and resources to form their own
  self-help networks
• - want to be fully and equally included in the
  decision-making and management of organisations
  of people with disability and in womens rights
  organisations
• - must be included in the formulation and
  delivery of development programs (mainstream,
  gender-specific and disability-specific)

12
Gender, Disability and DevelopmentWhat next?

• Development programs
• - need to be linked to development measures that
  address gender equity / womens human rights as
  well as those that address the rights of people
  with disability.
• - need to develop measures to ensure women with
  disability are active and equal partners
• - need to be linked to DPOs, networks of women
  with disability and capacity building projects
  that support these groups
• - need to be aligned with the BMF