A report submitted to the General Assembly by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, provides an overview of the issue of violence against women with disabilities.

The report states that women with disabilities experience both the stereotypical attitudes towards women and towards persons with disabilities which put them at high risk of being subjected to violence and abuse. These occur in various spheres, including in the home or the community.

The forms of violence to which women with disabilities are the victims can be of a physical, psychological, sexual or financial nature and include neglect, social isolation, entrapment, degradation, detention, denial of health care, forced sterilization and psychiatric treatment. They are performed in an attempt to dehumanize or infantilize, exclude or isolate women with disabilities.

The causes of violence against women with disabilities originate in social norms about the nature and type of disability and gender roles.

As women with disabilities often lack access to education, financial independence, information on how to report incidents of violence and on how to recognize and address violence, including sexual violence, these remain largely unpunished.

In recent years, the experiences of women with disabilities have become somewhat more visible as a synergy to foster changes in law, policy and practice in order to ensure the inclusion of women with disabilities in understanding and responding to violence against women seems to have emerged. However, it remains largely insufficient to achieve the overall objective of reduction of violence on women with disabilities.

Ms. Rashida Manjoo was appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2009. According to her mandate she seeks and receives information on violence against women, its causes and consequences from Governments, treaty bodies, specialized agencies, as well as intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, including women’s organizations, and responds effectively to such information. She also recommends measures, ways and means, at the national, regional and international levels, to eliminate violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its consequences.

e-include.eu, 25/10/2012