Women With Disabilities Australia (wwda) wwda-news issue 2, 2012

NB: References for this article are provided in Appendix 1 of this Newsletter.


Presentation by Myra Kovary to the High Level Panel on Rural Women & Girls With Disabilities: Economic Empowerment & Political Participation
Good afternoon. My name is Myra Kovary. I am the moderator of the listserv for the International Network of Women with Disabilities. Our mission is to enable women with disabilities from all around the world to share our knowledge and experience, enhance our capacity to speak up for our rights, and empower ourselves to bring about positive change and inclusion in our communities. I thank Stephanie Ortoleva of WomenEnabled, Lois Herman of the Women’s UN Report Network, and Carolyn Frohmader of Women With Disabilities Australia for the opportunity to participate on this distinguished panel today.
The concerns of rural women and girls with disabilities in the developing world require urgent attention. Rural women and girls with disabilities are neglected in the developed world as well, but to a different degree.
A social worker who assists low income families with disabilities in India shared this story with one of our members: A mother came looking for help in caring for her daughter who has cerebral palsy. The mother reported how they needed to go outside their house into nearby fields for toileting needs. They did not have access to a wheelchair, so four young men from the community carried her to the fields and back every day. These men would then routinely rape and abuse her. The mother was beyond distraught and felt helpless. The social worker said, “Let me come to your house and we will install a small toileting facility in the corner, any corner will do.” The mother told her there were no corners in the house. The social worker could not understand and went with her to visit her home. They were living in an abandoned water pipe.

Sanitation is an issue not just at home but also in schools. In rural areas, schools are often based in buildings with poor accessibility. Especially as girls hit puberty, the lack of access to private places to change sanitary napkins basically becomes a reason to stop going to school.

When a woman with a disability is seen as unable to do home related work, society devalues her, her eligibility to get married, etc. In rural areas in developing countries, many households still cook with stoves on the floor, so it makes a huge difference to the woman's self-confidence and independence when she is provided with basic assistive devices.

From a member in Sweden: Rural women are often farmers and if women with disabilities cannot get the help they need to work, they are dependent on a husband or children or other relatives. If they produce handicrafts or arts, they may need a second person to sell their products. That person is often dishonest. If we do not have our own car or cannot drive ourselves, the lack of accessible transportation essentially "locks us up" in our homes. Our freedom is limited. If we face violence, we have few opportunities to flee.

One of our Canadian members wrote: I might not be as rural as some, but I'm just far enough away from town to not have hi-speed internet.  It is a big issue in a developed country like Canada. Other people with disabilities who have good internet access are more likely to find out about services to help them and those of us without it are getting left further and further behind.
Isolation limits our lives. In some rural areas of Africa, the traditional belief is still vibrant that disability is a curse to the family, so girls with disabilities are often hidden in the house, neglected and isolated from all social contact. Older women with disabilities in all regions are particularly isolated.
Women with disabilities in the rural USA mentioned not getting adequate health care due to the lack of accessible exam tables and accessible equipment for breast cancer screening.
Support for rural women with psychosocial disabilities in all regions of the world is also inadequate. Forced institutionalization, forced drugging and forced electroshock, are standard components of the western medical model of mental health treatment and are more frequently inflicted on women than on men. The effort to improve mental health services in rural areas must not become an excuse or an opportunity for the expansion of forced psychiatric interventions. Rather, support must be provided that respects the right of rural women with disabilities to make their own decisions, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
One of our indigenous members wrote: I hope there will be at least some mention of indigenous women and girls with disabilities at this event. We are truly the grassroots people and many of our disabilities have been the result of removal from our homelands, changes in sources of food, changes in vegetation that provide natural medicines, and the complete destruction of our social structure. Please don't forget to mention us.
And from another: It is for indigenous women with disabilities ourselves to speak on our issues. It must be recognized that indigenous women with disabilities are not at the table because of extreme discrimination and financial hardship.
I hope that, in the future, indigenous women with disabilities will be invited and funded to speak on panels such as this one.
In partnership with the International Disability Alliance, I end with our motto: NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US!
Thank you for your attention.


Presentation by Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, to the High Level Panel on Rural Women & Girls With Disabilities: Economic Empowerment & Political Participation
Good afternoon distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to be speaking at this side event as a representative of the Australian Government Delegation to the UN Commission on Status of Women 56th session.
Let me start with a story. It's the story that Stella Young, a young disability rights advocate tells about her own experience.
When Stella was a young girl she was on holidays with her parents. She broke her leg and her parents took her to hospital. The doctors reset her leg and then one of them said to Stella's parents ‘well we might as well do the hysterectomy while she's here’ [1]. This was particularly shocking because Stella was only 4 years old. As she says thankfully her parents picked her up from hospital that day. But this is one of the issues still faced by some women with a disability not just in Australia but across the world.
As the other panelists will share today, women and girls with a disability face considerable discrimination and violence across all the regions of the world. Women and girls with a disability who are living in rural areas can face considerable hardships.
In Australia, 9.5% of the total Australian population are women and girls with a disability [2].
31% of the Australian population live in rural areas and almost 700,000 women and girls with a disability live in rural and remote Australia [3].
There are numerous barriers that women with a disability in rural areas face. For example, in Australia people with a disability are half as likely to be employed as people without disability [4]; and more likely to be living in poverty [5]. More specifically, the labour force participation rate of women with disability is 49%, well below the 60% participation rate of males with disability and the 77% participation rate of women without disability [6]. Forty-five per cent of people with a disability in Australia live in or near poverty, more than double the OECD average of 22% [7]
Out of the many issues that arise I will focus on two: Firstly, violence against women and girls with a disability; and secondly, the lack of access to services to address violence.
Women and girls with a disability are vulnerable to many forms of violence, including domestic violence, sexual assault, as well as to violence committed against them in institutional settings, and other forms of violence including forced sterilisation and abortions.
The Australian Human Rights Commission and other organisations, including Women with Disabilities Australia, has previously noted [8] the lack of research and robust data on violence against women and girls with disabilities in Australia [9]. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) does not currently report data specifically on violence against women and girls with disabilities [10]. For example, the ABS Gender Indicators, Australia, provide no disaggregated data on violence against women with disabilities [11].
Similarly, it is difficult to find data on the number of forced sterilisations of women and girls with a disability. While there are some mechanisms in place to ensure against forced sterilisations [12], there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that mechanisms are not working adequately to protect women and girls with a disability from forced non-therapeutic sterilisations and unlawful sterilisations continue within Australia [13].
In 2010 the CEDAW Committee recommended that Australia address, as a matter of priority, the abuse and violence experienced by women with disabilities living in institutions or supported accommodation and recommended that the State party enact national legislation prohibiting, except where there is a serious threat to life or health, the use of sterilisation of girls, regardless of whether they have a disability, and of adult women with disabilities in the absence of their fully informed and free consent [14].
At Australia’s Universal Periodic Review in January 2011, a number of countries called for the implementation of a national plan to combat violence against women, and for the prohibition of non-therapeutic sterilisation of women and girls with a disability [15]. The Australian Government in its response to the Universal Periodic Review recommendations on sterilisation committed to initiate further discussions with its State and Territory counterparts.
The Australian Government also launched the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2020 on 15 February 2011. The plan adopts a holistic view to addressing domestic violence and sexual assault and has a strong focus on prevention. Some of the actions the plan proposes to address violence against women with disabilities include:

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  Investigating and promoting ways to improve access and responses to domestic violence sexual assault services for women with disabilities.
  
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  Supporting better service delivery for women and children with disabilities
  
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  Improving access to justice for women and children with disabilities who have been victims of violence.
  
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  Providing grants for primary prevention programs to organisations who work with women with disabilities.
  
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  Fostering respectful relationships in a range of settings, including targeting vulnerable young people with intellectual disability [16].
  

At the moment the Plan does not include actions to address other forms of violence experienced by women and girls with a disability (for example forced sterilisation and abortion; and exploitation, neglect or violence in institutional settings).
The Australian Law Reform Commission recently recommended that a common definition of family violence be inserted into all relevant Commonwealth laws a definition that includes: conduct that is violent, threatening, coercive and controlling, or intended to cause a family member to be fearful; and a non-exhaustive list of examples of physical and non-physical conduct [17]. In such a definition, types of family violence experienced by people with a disability may include: forced sterilisation and abortion; specific types of abuse related to their disability such as withholding equipment, food and medication; and financial exploitation.
In addition to the issue of violence, there second issue I want to briefly address is that there are insufficient specific services to address violence against women and girls with disabilities and to address harmful practices that can result in disabilities. This is particularly so in rural areas.
The Australian Productivity Commission has noted that the ‘[c]urrent disability support arrangements are inequitable, underfunded, fragmented, and inefficient and give people with a disability little choice’ [18]. The Productivity Commission noted that inadequate services hit certain communities particularly hard, noting especially people living in regional and remote areas, people from a non-English speaking background and women with disabilities.
However, I am pleased to be able to say that while these issues are critical, we have seen some positive developments emerge to address these issues. The Australian Government, in addition to having ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008, also developed a new National Disability Agreement, which commenced in 2009 to improve and expand services for people with disability, their families and carers [19].
In 2009-2010, almost 300,000 people used services – for respite, employment, accommodation support, community support and community access, provided under the National Disability Agreement, which accounted for nearly $5.8 billion dollars of combined government expenditures [20].
The Australian Government has also developed a National Disability Strategy 2010-2020 that identified the development of strategies be developed to reduce violence, abuse and neglect of people with a disability, as an area of action. The first implementation plan for the strategy is currently being developed and we await the release of the plan and announcement of strategies in this regard [21].
I would also like to note a very positive development in Australia, which is the commitment to create a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) [22]. The Australian Government is currently working with the state and territory governments on the key design issues for the NDIS. The NDIS has the potential to transform the way services are funded and delivered in rural areas, ensuring women and girls with significant and ongoing disability are better supported and have greater choice and control.
To conclude, the silence and the invisibility of the violence faced by women and girls with a disability has continued for too long. It is essential that we talk about these issues and bring them to the forefront. This requires us to collect reliable data on these issues. We must also put in place comprehensive services to assist women and girls with a disability in Australia.
But most importantly, it is vital that the abuse and violence experienced by women with disabilities, including women and girls with disability living in institutions or supported accommodation, be stopped; and especially that forced sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities be clearly prohibited. To do otherwise would be to deny women like Stella their fundamental human rights.
Thank you.

Women with disabilities meet with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Since 1994, the United Nations has appointed a Special Rapporteur on violence against women, including its causes and consequences; the position is currently held by Ms Rashida Manjoo of South Africa.
During April 2012, Ms Manjoo undertook a ten day Study Tour of Australia to a focus on the issues of culture and violence against Indigenous women, as well as other issues of violence against women in Australia. It was the first time the Special Rapporteur on violence against women had ever formally visited Australia. The study tour was co-hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA).
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur requires her to:

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  seek and receive information on violence against women, its causes and its consequences from Governments, treaty bodies, specialized agencies, other Special Rapporteurs responsible for various human rights questions and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, including women's organizations, and to respond effectively to such information;
  
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  recommend measures, ways and means at the local, national, regional and international levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its consequences;
  
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  work closely with all special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council and with the treaty bodies, taking into account the request of the Council that they regularly and systematically integrate the human rights of women and a gender perspective into their work, and cooperate closely with the Commission on the Status of Women in the discharge of its functions;
  
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  continue to adopt a comprehensive and universal approach to the elimination of violence against women, its causes and consequences, including causes of violence against women relating to the civil, cultural, economic, political and social spheres.
  

As part of her Study Tour of Australia, Ms Manjoo conducted a number of Roundtables with a range of key communities including: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities from both urban and rural areas; culturally and linguistically diverse communities; and women with disabilities. WWDA was involved in organising a Roundtable of Women With Disabilities, which brought together experts in the area to meet with Ms Manjoo to specifically discuss the issue of violence against women and girls with disabilities in Australia. The Roundtable was held in Melbourne on April 18. More than 24 women attended the Roundtable, including a number of WWDA members, along with WWDA CEO Carolyn Frohmader. WWDA Board members Karin Swift (from Queensland) and Margie Charlesworth (from Adelaide) were able to attend the Roundtable with funding for their travel provided by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). WWDA takes this opportunity to thank the AHRC for its support. Both Karen and Margie’s report from the day is provided here for your information.
Special Rapporteur Roundtable with Women with Disabilities

WWDA Representative Report: by Karin Swift
Introduction

UN Special Rapporteur, Ms Rashida Manjoo, undertook a study tour in Australia from 10-20 April, 2012. This Roundtable was part of the study tour. Of particular significance during the Roundtable, in addressing delegates, Ms Manjoo encouraged people to use the International instruments to which Australia is a party and report incidences of violence against women with disabilities to the UN.

Issues

This was an important opportunity for women with disabilities to come together and speak to someone from the UN about the issue of violence against women with disabilities. Many women spoke about key issues concerning women with disabilities and violence. Some service providers spoke, but of key importance was the fact that it was a forum for women with disabilities to speak on this important issue affecting them.

Each woman had 3 minutes to speak, some women addressed the broad issues (ie access to information, recognising violence, communication issues, isolation and vulnerability, knowledge of women’s rights, a woman’s perceived lack of credibility, physical, financial and emotional dependence on carers/ partners / paid workers who are abusing them, accessible, appropriate, reliable transport, inaccessibility of the service system), while some women touched on their personal experience. One woman was supported well to speak of her personal experience of being sexually assaulted in a group home. This was very profound for everyone present.
There was some positive examples given of innovative practice happening in Victoria, for example, a service that supports women to stay at home where possible (instead of the traditional practice of removing women from the violent situation and placing them in a Shelter).
WWDA’s latest work on the issue was positively acknowledged by Ms Manjoo. Towards the end of the Roundtable, Carolyn Frohmader, WWDA EO, summed up the National context, saying that it was difficult to gauge a consistent approach to this issue as each State and Territory has different policies, programs, services, procedures and guidelines. Carolyn warned that the picture being presented at the Roundtable was largely from a Victorian context and not necessarily reflective of what is happening at a national level.
Personal Achievements and Reflections

As there were many speakers there from Victoria, I felt it was important to give a Queensland context to the issue. I spoke about the Queensland Disability Service system and how many women are living in congregative group home settings that are block funded, so if they are subjected to violence, it can be really difficult to move. Even for women who are lucky enough to receive individualised funding, if they have to move to another area to escape violence, it depends on whether a service in the area they are moving to has capacity to take them on. I also spoke about the Social Housing system in Queensland and how even people who are homeless experience difficulty attaining housing and the severe shortage of affordable, universally designed housing. I then spoke about how the DV sector in Queensland still has a long way to go to be fully inclusive of women with disabilities.

I was honoured to be able to participate in the Roundtable on behalf of WWDA. It was certainly my biggest career highlight to date to be able to speak directly with someone from the UN. It was also powerful to see the collective voice of women with disabilities speaking on such an important issue in an international human rights context, in a very respectful and collaborative way. This experience has been essential to my leadership development and has given me much confidence to pursue further kinds of representative work in the future. I feel it is important to acknowledge that these types of leadership development opportunities for women with disability don’t come by easily or by chance, as there is often so much more to negotiate in one’s daily life when they have a disability. These opportunities are the result of the concerted and strategic efforts by organisations such as WWDA to give women with disabilities the opportunity and an equal platform to speak on human rights issues on a national and international stage

Special Rapporteur Roundtable with Women with Disabilities

WWDA Representative Report: by Margie Charlesworth
I found this meeting very informative in relation to what other States and Territories in Australia are doing in relation to the issues of domestic violence and abuse of women with disabilities. It was also useful to learn about international reporting mechanisms and procedures, including the role of the Special Rapporteur and how her reports are used within the UN system. The sharing of such information is important because it can act almost as a way for those States and Territories to build on what they are doing while assisting to build a national picture and way forward in our quest to eliminate violence and abuse of women and girls with disabilities.
From the perspective of Women With Disabilities South Australia (WWDSA) it was useful to be a part of his process. Since the middle of 2011 WWDSA has been working on an awareness program “Don’t Cross the Line: Violence Against Women with Disabilities”. This program is sponsored by the Office for Women in SA and is designed to raise awareness among women’s service providers, within both the Government and Non-Government sectors.
It was evident that there are still many issues in relation to violence against women and girls with disabilities that still need immediate attention. One major concern from my perspective was the issues associated with having women who do report incidences of violence and abuse. For example, for those who have a cognitive impairment and/or a mental health issue, there is an unrealistic expectation upon them to prove what happened to them. This burden is over and above what is expected from other women who report. Similarly we heard how women with communication barriers/impediment are not trusted as a credible victim because their speech is difficult to understand or the method they use to communicate is not seen as a competent way to communicate.