Women with disabilities raise their voices during session on rights treaty
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As part of the 9th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), being held in New York from 14-16 June 2016, and as the UN treaty approaches its 10th anniversary, women and girls with disabilities took part in a series of side events, emphasizing that they are the key to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, so that "no one is left behind."
“We as disabled women do not only want to be ‘protected’ but we want to participate as leaders for change,” said Stephanie Ortoleva, President of Women Enabled International during opening remarks at a discussion on 14 June entitled “Implementation of Global Development & Humanitarian Goals: Leadership Role of Women with Disabilities”. Co-organized by Women’s Refugee Commission, Women Enabled International, Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SCRPD), Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA ), UN Women and International Disability Alliance, the meeting fostered discussions among networks of women with disabilities and stakeholders to stimulate leadership opportunities at national, regional and global levels and achieve overarching humanitarian goals.
During the meeting, women with disabilities emphasized that they have been left out of participating in certain spaces due to their gender when working with disability organizations and left out of women's organizations because of their disability, and emphasized their needs and hopes for the next 10 years of the CRPD.
Voices
“All stakeholders [should] understand and develop a framework and strategy to reach those who are most marginalized and build a space for us … to address the gaps and barriers we have within ourselves. Our distinct and multiple identities of being indigenous women with disabilities are our collective strength for both the humanitarian and development goals. We will be the champions and change-makers of society.” —Pratima Gurung, Nepal, Member of the Indigenous Peoples with Disabilities Global Network (IPWDGN)
“The impairment that I have that causes the disability is not really a problem. The problem is society's attitude and barriers, which are more disabling than impairment. We formed the organization of women with disabilities because we also realize that our issues were really not well articulated, nor were we given priority. In Kenya, when we started the situation was really bad because nobody listened to us. With the enactment of the Disability Act in 2003, things started to change and people started understanding our issues. Since then there has also been good political will in development. That has also helped us a long way.” —Jane Kihungi, Kenya, Women Challenged to Challenge Kenya and the Network of African Women with Disabilities
“In Sweden, there's a difference between men and women with a disability in everything—when it comes to wages, how much personal assistance you get, what kind of aid you have—everything. We want to make this visible and want women with disabilities to be strong and stand up for themselves. We are not just one category. In this Conference, it's wonderful to meet people with the same goal and enthusiasm and engagement. … Before we had the CRPD, people with disabilities were invisible in the UN system. The Sustainable Development Goals are much more positive compared to the Millennium Goals, because we are in them—that's the big difference.” —Maria Johansson, Sweden, President of Equally Unique, Federation for Human Rights for Persons with Disability
“Multiple and intersectional discrimination is one of the main concerns of the CRPD Committee. I think the CRPD is a very important treaty body to the UN system because it has brought to the system new elements for the analysis of human rights that the treaty bodies have been covering. [Analysis of] intersectional discrimination is one of the most valuable contributions that the CRPD has brought into the UN system" —Silvia Quan, Guatemala, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
“The voices of women with disabilities need to be heard by development actors. In the CRPD, there is a mention that women with disabilities should be participating in development. It's important that we engage women with disabilities as actors to speak about their rights and how women with disabilities can be included in the Sustainable Development Goals." —Dwi Ariyani, Disability Rights Fund, Indonesia.
After discussing their experiences, the drafting of an Participants identified some priority actions, such as training, research and data focused on women with disabilities, frameworks to guide budgeting at the grass-roots level, and capacity-building for advocacy at all levels.
Throughout the three-day session, participants highlighted the importance of leadership and participation of women with disabilities in decision-making at all levels, including as role models. Expressing concern about the results of the elections of the new members of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which took place on the first day of the session and left only one woman among 18 members, many agreed it is necessary to identify, support the nomination and election of women with disabilities to the Committee.