WUNRN
Human Rights Watch – Resource Document - Information on Gender-Based Violence for People with Disabilities – 10 Pages – March 2015
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/Gender%20based%20violence%20ETR%20final.pdf
http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/05/include-women-girls-disabilities-anti-violence-efforts-0
Include Women & Girls
with Disabilities in Anti-Violence Efforts
·
A woman resident sits on the floor in the
women’s ward of Thane Mental Hospital, a 1,857-bed facility in the suburbs of
Mumbai. © 2013 Shantha Rau Barriga/Human Rights Watch
“Information on gender-based violence needs to
reach the people who need it most, especially women and girls with
disabilities. Women and girls with disabilities are too often the victims of
violence, yet get too little information on where to go for help.” - Shantha
Rau Barriga, disability rights director
March 6, 2015 - (New York) – All governments should
ensure that women and girls with disabilities
are included in gender-based violence prevention and response programs, Human
Rights Watch said today. Ahead of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2015,
Human Rights Watch has published a resource on gender-based violence designed for
people with disabilities.
Women and girls with disabilities are at increased risk of gender-based violence in their homes, schools,
institutions, and the community at large.
Nevertheless, women and girls with disabilities are often excluded from
prevention programs, support services, and access to legal redress due to
stereotypical views about their sexuality, physical and communication barriers,
and lack of materials in accessible formats.
“Information on gender-based violence needs to reach the people who need it
most, especially women and girls with disabilities,” said Shantha
Rau Barriga, disability rights director at Human Rights Watch.
“Women and girls with disabilities are too often the victims of violence, yet
get too little information on where to go for help.”
The resource, produced in easy to read language was developed in collaboration
with disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) and gender-based violence service
providers, especially in Zambia, where Human Rights Watch did recent research
on the issue as part of a report on HIV and people with disabilities.
The resource shows how to recognize, prevent, and protect against gender-based
violence, including by distinguishing between “good” and “bad” touch, and
explains how to seek legal, medical, and psychosocial support. A supplementary document provides information on
places where people with disabilities can seek help in Zambia.
The World Health Organization estimates that 35 percent of women worldwide experience
gender-based violence in their lifetime. Women and children with disabilities
are disproportionately vulnerable to violence. People with disabilities are up
to three times as likely as others to be victims
of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and rape. They face multiple forms of
discrimination, including on the basis of their gender and disability – making
them more isolated, marginalized, and vulnerable to violence. Adults and
children with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities are among the most
vulnerable – with nearly four times the risk of experiencing violence.
In 2014, Human Rights Watch documented the vulnerability of women and girls
with disabilities to sexual violence in Zambia.
Women with disabilities in Zambia told Human Rights Watch that they were less
able to negotiate safe-sex practices, including the use of condoms, because of
pressure from intimate partners and the fear of being abandoned. More than a
third of these women had been victims of intimate partner sexual and physical
violence.
Abuses by family members and primary caregivers against children with
disabilities may be the hardest to detect, Human Rights Watch found. In one
case in Zambia, staff from a shelter for victims of gender-based violence were
called to investigate the abuse of a 16-year-old girl with an intellectual
disability who had given birth to three children, the suspected result of rape
by her father. Community health workers and parents of girls with intellectual
disabilities told Human Rights Watch that many parents kept children with
disabilities locked indoors, fearing sexual violence against them.
Human Rights Watch also documented abuse against women and girls with
disabilities in India, including 54 cases of verbal, physical,
and sexual abuse against women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual
disabilities at the hands of caretakers in institutions.
For women and girls with disabilities, their experience of violence often
remains hidden and unaddressed due to the multiple barriers they face in
accessing sexual and reproductive health, psychosocial, and criminal justice
services. For example, in Uganda, Human Rights Watch found that women
with disabilities who experience rape find it especially difficult to get help
because of inaccessible transportation and healthcare facilities, and lack of
confidential sign language interpretation. In Turkey, Human Rights Watch found that
emergency shelters in many cities were inaccessible to women with disabilities.
Worldwide, children with disabilities are often excluded from school, where
they can receive sexuality education. In Zambia, Human Rights Watch found that
even when children with disabilities are able to attend school, they are often
not included in programs providing HIV prevention and life skills instruction,
or the materials are not in formats accessible to them. In many countries,
information about gender-based violence is not provided in braille, large
print, simplified formats, or sign language.
Governments should implement legislation to address violence against women and
girls with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said. Governments, United Nations
agencies, donors and disabled persons’ organizations should work together to
ensure inclusive prevention and protection services. Services should include
accessible information and facilities; adequate training of counselors, health
workers, teachers, and police officers on communication with people with
disabilities; and involvement of people with disabilities in community-level
mobilization against gender-based violence.
“The disability community needs information on violence developed in
consultation with them or else they will continue to be isolated and ignored,”
Barriga said.