reports and publications
This section contains a list of other research reports and other papers about women with disabilities. These documents are copyright. Material in the Website may be reproduced provided the individual authors are acknowledged.
Sterilization of Women and Girls with Disabilities: A Briefing Paper (November 2011)
In many parts of the world, women rely on access to a range
of methods to control their fertility, including voluntary
sterilisation. However, too often, sterilisation is not a choice. Women
with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to forced sterilisations
performed under the auspices of legitimate medical care. The practice of
forced sterilisation is part of a broader pattern of denial of the
human rights of women and girls with disabilities. This denial also
includes systematic exclusion from comprehensive reproductive and sexual
health care, limited voluntary contraceptive choices, a focus on
menstrual suppression, poorly managed pregnancy and birth, involuntary
abortion, and the denial of rights to parenting. These practices are
framed within traditional social attitudes that characterize disability
as a personal tragedy or a matter for medical management and
rehabilitation. The difficulty some women with disabilities may have in
understanding or communicating what was done to them increases their
vulnerability to forced sterilisation. A further aggravating factor is
the widespread practice of legal guardians or others making
life-altering decisions for persons with disabilities, including
consenting to sterilisation on their behalf.
This briefing paper has been jointly prepared by Women With Disabilities
Australia (WWDA), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Open Society
Foundations, and the International Disability Alliance (IDA) as part of
the Global Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care. The paper gives a
background to the issue of forced sterilisation, outlines various
international human rights standards that prohibit forced sterilisation,
and offers several recommendations for improving laws, policies, and
professional guidelines governing sterilisation practices.
The paper can also be downloaded in both PDF and Word formats from WWDA’s website.
Women With Disabilities Australia: 'Women With Disabilities and The Human Right to Health: A Policy Paper' (May 2010)
WWDA's Policy Paper ‘'Women With Disabilities and The Human Right to Health’ examines what is meant by women with disabilities right to health and highlights the ways in which women and girls with disabilities in Australia are denied the freedoms and entitlements necessary for the realisation of their right to health. It then provides an overview of a range of key policy initiatives required to address the structural, socioeconomic and cultural barriers that currently deny women with disabilities their right to health.
The paper can be accessed here: http://www.wwda.org.au/health2006.htm
WWDA Policy Paper: Assessing the situation of women with disabilities in Australia
WWDA’s Policy Paper ‘Assessing the situation of women with disabilities in Australia: A human rights approach’ uses a human rights framework to document the range of data, research and information needed in order to give a comprehensive assessment of the situation of women with disabilities in Australia. WWDA’s Paper provides the context for this work by giving an overview of the intersection of gender and disability, as well as a brief background to the human rights imperative. The Paper provides in detail, in an Appendix, the international human rights obligations in relation to each of the issue areas covered in the paper.
The paper can be accessed here: http://www.wwda.org.au/subs2011.htm