WUNRN
Via Women
with Disabilities Australia - WWDA
http://www.wwda.org.au/sterilise2011.htm -
November 2011
Sterilization of Women and Girls with Disabilities: Briefing Paper
In many
parts of the world, women rely on access to a range of methods to control their
fertility, including voluntary sterilisation. However, too often, sterilisation
is not a choice. Women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to forced
sterilisations performed under the auspices of legitimate medical care. The
practice of forced sterilisation is part of a broader pattern of denial of the
human rights of women and girls with disabilities. This denial also includes
systematic exclusion from comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care,
limited voluntary contraceptive choices, a focus on menstrual suppression,
poorly managed pregnancy and birth, involuntary abortion, and the denial of
rights to parenting. These practices are framed within traditional social
attitudes that characterize disability as a personal tragedy or a matter for
medical management and rehabilitation. The difficulty some women with
disabilities may have in understanding or communicating what was done to them
increases their vulnerability to forced sterilisation. A further aggravating
factor is the widespread practice of legal guardians or others making
life-altering decisions for persons with disabilities, including consenting to
sterilisation on their behalf.
This
briefing paper has been jointly prepared by Women With Disabilities Australia
(WWDA), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Open Society Foundations, and the
International Disability Alliance (IDA) as part of the Global Campaign to Stop
Torture in Health Care. The paper gives a background to the issue of forced
sterilisation, outlines various international human rights standards that
prohibit forced sterilisation, and offers several recommendations for improving
laws, policies, and professional guidelines governing sterilisation practices.
Sterilization
of Women and Girls with Disabilities: A Briefing Paper
PDF format:
http://www.wwda.org.au/Sterilization_Disability_Briefing_Paper_October2011.pdf
Word
format: http://www.wwda.org.au/Sterilization_Disability_Briefing_Paper_October2011.doc
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