WUNRN
'Dehumanised:
The Forced Sterilisation of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia'
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) Submission to
the Senate Inquiry into the Involuntary or Coerced Sterilisation of People with
Disabilities in Australia
Direct Link to Full 118-Page
Submission:
Summary & Recommendations:
The
Senate Inquiry into Involuntary or Coerced Sterilisation of People with
Disabilities in Australia commenced in late 2012 and Submissions to the Inquiry
closed in early March 2013. The Senate is due to report on the Inquiry by June
2013.
WWDAs Submission to the Inquiry establishes beyond doubt, that forced and coerced sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities is a form of torture an inhuman practice which violates multiple human rights, and clearly breaches every international human rights treaty to which Australia is a party.
WWDAs Submission addresses the issue of forced and coerced sterilisation in detail. It examines the background to, and the status of the issue in Australia today, and examines the rationale used to justify the forced sterilisation of disabled women and girls, including themes such as eugenics/genetics; for the good of the State, community or family; incapacity for parenthood; incapacity to develop and evolve; prevention of sexual abuse; and discourses around best interest.
WWDAs Submission analyses Australian Court and Tribunal applications and authorisations for sterilisation of disabled women and girls, and demonstrates that the Australian Governments current justification of the best interest approach in the sterilisation of disabled women and girls, has in effect, been used to perpetuate discriminatory attitudes against women and girls with disabilities, and has only served to facilitate the practice of forced sterilisation. The impact of forced sterilisation on women and girls with disabilities is also highlighted in WWDAs Submission, and reaffirms, through the voices of those affected, that forced and coerced sterilisation has long-lasting physical, psychological and social effects.
WWDAs Submission looks in detail at forced and coerced sterilisation as a violation of human rights and provides an analysis of how the practice contravenes every international human rights treaty to which Australia is a party. Several recent and current legal cases are used to highlight that the issue of forced and coerced sterilisation of women and girls is increasingly being recognised in Courts around the world, as a violation of womens fundamental human rights.
Importantly, WWDAs Submission also examines redress and transitional justice for women and girls with disabilities who have been sterilised in the absence of their fully informed and free consent.
WWDAs Submission includes 18 Key Recommendations, covering areas such as legislative reforms; transitional justice and redress, (including financial reparation, rehabilitation and recovery); research; informed consent; parenting; violence prevention; supportive decision-making; mechanisms to enable participation of women and girls with disabilities in decision-making; and more.