Materials : Meeting Documents :

Ensuring the inclusion of the Gender Dimension in the Ongoing Work for a Disability Rights Convention

UN-ESCAP
18-22 August 2005, Bangkok, Thailand

By Venus M. Ilagan
Chairperson, Disabled Peoples International

Introduction

Human dignity is the anchor norm of human rights. Each individual has inestimable value. People including those with disabilities, must not be valued based solely on their economic usefulness to their communities and societies but on their inherent self-worth among other merits.

Dignity as a value has been a crucial factor in the shift into a human rights perspective on disability. Owing to their relative invisibility, disabled people, were often treated as objects to be protected and pitied. In some cases, they are totally ignored, sidelined or even discarded just like ordinary dispensable things. The crucial change came when disabled people began to see themselves as subjects and not as mere objects.

Human equality, a related value, is central to the system of basic freedoms postulated by human rights law. Its core premise is that all persons not only posses inestimable inherent self-worth but are also inherently equal in terms of self-worth, regardless of their difference. Thus, distinctions between persons stemming from factors that are arbitrary from a moral point of view such as race, gender, age or disability should not far outweigh the value of human dignity inherent to the person himself or herself.

The case of disabled women

While generally, the majority of people with disabilities suffer disadvantage and neglect as part of their daily existence, women and girls with disabilities live under extremely difficult circumstances. Despite their significant number, they are the most vulnerable among disabled people yet the least protected. Many of them are hidden and silent, their concerns unknown and their voices unheard. Women and girls often suffer triple discrimination - not only because they are disabled, but also because they are female and often are poor.

Most people and societies have the tendency to believe that disabled people are genderless. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has itself adopted General Recommendation No. 18 on women with disabilities which requests States parties to include information on women with disabilities in their periodic reports with respect to disabled women's exercise of several rights contained in the Convention. In a study commissioned by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), sample surveys of periodic reports show that there was little consistent reporting on the double or even triple discrimination experienced by women with disabilities.

Discrimination among other barriers

Among those considered as belonging to the so-called most vulnerable groups and among disabled persons themselves, women with disabilities suffer the most discrimination, including lack of equality in availing themselves of opportunities to enjoy certain rights and freedoms which are more often made available to non-disabled people and disabled men as well.

Most of the lack of equality of opportunity and treatment with respect to disability, and in particular reference to disabled women, is based on societal prejudice which can be challenged and changed if enough political will is made to correct such prejudice. Example: If enough women with disabilities obtain the support they need to break down existing barriers created by prejudice and misunderstanding and are allowed to enter mainstream employment, the presence of a "difference" will soon be recognized, tolerated and accepted. As a result, future generation of women with disabilities will no longer face the same social barriers and hence will no longer need "quotas" or different forms of priority access to employment. However, as in the case of maternity, there may be aspects and forms of disability that will always necessitate special measures in order to achieve equal opportunity and treatment, especially in the area of employment.

Even in the monitoring of compliance to the provisions of the CEDAW, there is a marked lack of coverage of women with disabilities. Existing information are limited and fall short of meeting the required benchmark for reporting on disabled women with disabilities set under General Recommendation No. 18 and in the reporting guidelines. Ideally, reports should contain information on the situation of women with disabilities under each right, measures taken to enhance their status, progress made and difficulties and obstacles encountered. But as initial surveys reveal, there is no such special attention made to highlight the situation of disabled women to show how they benefit from the provisions of the CEDAW.

Equality of opportunities

Taking the ethic of "equality of opportunity" in the context of disability and in specific reference to women with disabilities implies calling for several forms of governmental action and intervention:

Equality of opportunity entails tackling structural exclusion in such areas as transport, social amenities, public services and many others. No meaningful change can be expected unless the social and economic processes of civil society are structured more inclusively and opened up to persons with disabilities in general in a genuinely equal basis with particular focus on women with disabilities;
Equality of opportunity entails ensuring that women with disabilities are trained to the best of their abilities to take up socially responsible and productive roles in civil society, just like their male counterparts and others. This means putting the education system on a genuinely equal basis where disabled women could have easy access to it and supplementing it where necessary.
Equality of opportunity means tackling instances of discrimination that exclude disabled women from various activities of everyday life. This calls for clear and easily enforceable anti-discrimination measures that zero in on women with disabilities who are often excluded from social spheres, public services, socio-civic obligations and many other entitlements. Attention must be made to ensure that disabled women are provided equal opportunities in gaining employment since economic independence is crucial for the full and effective enjoyment of countless other rights.

Health needs and rights of women with disabilities and their protection against violence

It is likewise of primordial importance to acknowledge that certain cultural/traditional practices such as female genital mutilation carry a high risk of causing disabilities in women. States Parties must take appropriate and effective measures to eradicate the practice of female circumcision.

General Recommendation No. 12 of the CEDAW requests states to include in their periodic reports information concerning the incidence of violence against women. Although it does not specifically mention violence against women with disabilities, it can logically be interpreted that they are included.

Conclusion

As the work for a thematic convention to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities progresses, it is important to become more aware and conscious about making sure that rights of disabled women and girls and their particular concerns will be taken into account and not be overlooked or neglected. Positive discrimination must be employed to make sure that women and girls with disabilities are afforded the same protection and benefits from a future thematic convention for the promotion and protection of the human rights of all persons with disabilities.#

References: Human Rights and Disability by Gerard Quinn and Theresia Degener; Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

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