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Northeastern University - School of Law
August 21, 2012
Northeastern
University School of Law Research Paper No. 104-2012
Abstract:
This report, prepared by scholars
and human rights advocates who are members of the Working Group on Violence
against Women with Disabilities, focuses on the prevalence and pervasiveness of
violence against women and girls with disabilities. The Working Group
recognizes the need to ensure that women and girls with disabilities are
included as full participants in data-gathering, analysis, and proposed
solutions as the mandates of Ms. Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on
Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, and Mr. Shuaib Chalklen,
the Special Rapporteur on Disability, move forward. Additionally, the Working
Group calls on international organizations, especially those focused on women’s
rights such as the UN Commission on the Status of Women (which will consider as
its priority thematic issue violence against women at its 57th session in March
2013) and UN Women, and the international community, governments and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to join us in the effort to highlight
these critical issues.
Because women with disabilities make up a significant part of the world’s
population, principles of fairness and equality require that the world engage
in a vigorous discussion on how to end violence against them. According to the
World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank (WB), more than one billion
people (approximately 15% of the world’s population) live with some form of
disability.
Significantly, for the World Bank and World Health Organization disability
level threshold of 40, which includes those experiencing significant
difficulties in their everyday lives for both low income and high income
countries, the male disability prevalence rate is 12 with standard error .18
and the female disability prevalence rate is 19.2 with standard error .19.
Based on these figures, it is clear that women with disabilities constitute a
significant portion of the global population and that the pervasive violence
against women with disabilities must be addressed. The 2011 Report of the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women focused on the
multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that contribute to and
exacerbate violence against women, noting that factors such as ability, age,
access to resources, race/ethnicity, language, religion, sexual orientation and
gender identity and class can exacerbate the violence women experience.
Although women with disabilities experience many of the same forms of violence
all women experience, when gender and disability intersect, violence takes on
unique forms, has unique causes, and results in unique consequences. Further,
women with disabilities who are also people of color or members of minority or
indigenous peoples, or who are lesbian, trans-gender or intersex or who live in
poverty, can be subject to particularized forms of violence and discrimination.
These intersections must be explored in greater depth to ensure that the
complexities of violence against women with disabilities are properly
understood and addressed.