Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
WWDA-NEWS
Issue 3, 2012
© ISSN: 1836-7739
WWDA NEWS
Issue 3, 2012
Prepared by Carolyn Frohmader & Karin Swift for Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
© Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) October 2012
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without written permission from Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA). All possible care has been taken in the preparation of the information contained in this document. WWDA disclaims any liability for the accuracy and sufficiency of the information and under no circumstances shall be liable in negligence or otherwise in or arising out of the preparation or supply of any of the information aforesaid.
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) is the peak organisation for women with all types of disabilities in Australia. WWDA is run by women with disabilities, for women with disabilities. It is the only organisation of its kind in Australia and one of only a very small number internationally. It represents more than 2 million disabled women in Australia and operates as a national disability organisation; a national women's organisation; and a national human rights organisation. WWDA is inclusive and does not discriminate against any disability. The aim of WWDA is to be a national voice for the needs and rights of women with disabilities and a national force to improve the lives and life chances of women with disabilities. WWDA is committed to promoting and advancing the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women with disabilities.
Our work is grounded in a rights based framework which links gender and disability issues to a full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. This rights based approach recognises that equal treatment, equal opportunity, and non-discrimination provide for inclusive opportunities for women and girls with disabilities in society. It also seeks to create greater awareness among governments and other relevant institutions of their obligations to fulfil, respect, protect and promote human rights and to support and empower women with disabilities, both individually and collectively, to claim their rights.
More information about WWDA can be found at the organisation’s extensive website: www.wwda.org.au
Previous Newsletters are available on the WWDA website at: http://wwda.org.au/wwdanewsletter.htm
If you have any questions, or would like more information on anything in this Newsletter, please email Carolyn at:
PO Box 605, Rosny Park, Tasmania 7018 AUSTRALIA
Ph: +61 3 62448288 Fax: +61 3 62448255
Email: Web: www.wwda.org.au
Join WWDA on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Women-With-Disabilities-Australia-WWDA/202081393153894
WWDA NEWS
Issue 3, 2012
In This Issue:
Senate Inquiry into Involuntary or Coerced Sterilisation of People with Disabilities in Australia 4
Article: Involuntary Sterilisation Threatens Rights of Disabled Women 6
Article: Time to stop the forced sterilisation of girls and women with disability 8
WWDA Paper Presented at the International Conference 10
UN General Assembly Releases New Report on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities 14
Report from the OHCHR Study into Violence Against Women With Disabilities 15
WWDA’s Human Rights work in Jakarta 18
WWDA Management Committee and Staff 2012-2013 22
Critical Reflections on the Status of Women with Disabilities in a Globalised World Symposium 23
WWDA Member Profile – Katharine Annear 25
WWDA Member Profile – Kerrie Duff 27
International Network of Women With Disabilities (INWWD) Presents Paper at UN 28
Violence Against Women with Disabilities Research Project 32
WWDA Annual Report Now Available 33
National Disability Organisation’s Clearinghouse Website 34
1800RESPECT Frontline Workers Expansion Project 35
Article: The Lived Experience of Women with Disabilities in Australia 36
The Disability Clothesline Australia 42
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) 43
Resources 45
Join WWDA 48
News Wanted for WWDA-News 48
Appendices 49
Senate Inquiry into Involuntary or Coerced Sterilisation of People with Disabilities in Australia
WWDA has been working for more than a decade on the issue of involuntary [forced] sterilisation of girls and women with disabilities. Part of our advocacy work over many years has been calling on the Australian Government to conduct a national inquiry into the issue.
On Wednesday 19th September, the Chair of the Community Affairs References Committee (Senator Siewert) gave a notice of motion as follows: To move on the next day of sitting - That the following matter be referred to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 24 April 2013:
The involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia, including:
(a) the types of sterilisation practices that are used, including treatments that prevent menstruation or reproduction, and exclusion or limitation of access to sexual health, contraceptive or family planning services;
(b) the prevalence of these sterilisation practices and how they are recorded across different state and territory jurisdictions;
(c) the different legal, regulatory and policy frameworks and practices across the Commonwealth, states and territories, and action to date on the harmonisation of regimes;
(d) whether current legal, regulatory and policy frameworks provide adequate:
(i) steps to determine the wishes of a person with a disability,
(ii) steps to determine an individual’s capacity to provide free and informed consent,
(iii) steps to ensure independent representation in applications for sterilisation procedures where the subject of the application is deemed unable to provide free and informed consent, and
(iv) application of a ‘best interest test’ as it relates to sterilisation and reproductive rights;
(e) the impacts of sterilisation of people with disabilities;
(f) Australia’s compliance with its international obligations as they apply to sterilisation of people with disabilities;
(g) the factors that lead to sterilisation procedures being sought by others for people with disabilities, including:
(i) the availability and effectiveness of services and programs to support people with disabilities in managing their reproductive and sexual health needs, and whether there are measures in place to ensure that these are available on a non-discriminatory basis,
(ii) the availability and effectiveness of educational resources for medical practitioners, guardians, carers and people with a disability around the consequences of sterilisation, and
(iii) medical practitioners, guardians and carers’ knowledge of and access to services and programs to support people with disabilities in managing their reproductive and sexual health needs; and
(h) any other related matters.
WWDA is pleased that the Australian Government agreed to retain most of the draft Terms of Reference we suggested for the Inquiry. The Terms of Reference are broad enough in scope to enable the Inquiry to more broadly consider the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and the more input we can get to this Senate Inquiry, the better. We urge everyone to have their say. The Inquiry is not just about sterilisation. We need to ensure that the Senate Inquiry is fully informed on the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities, including what is needed to ensure these rights can be fully realised.
If you need help to tell the Senate your story, or would like WWDA to tell the Senate your story on your behalf, please contact WWDA. You don’t have to give your name. You can remain anonymous. WWDA will be putting out more information in the near future about ways you can participate in the Inquiry.
The Senate Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online at https://senate.aph.gov.au/submissions/pages/index.aspx or sent by email to as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600 Australia
The closing date for submissions has not yet been set, but the reporting date for the Inquiry is 24 April 2013.
You can check this website for updates on the Inquiry, including the closing date for Submissions:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=clac_ctte%2Fforced_sterilisation%2Finfo.htm
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm.
Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat. Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600 Australia
Ph: +61 2 6277 3515 Fax: +61 2 6277 5829
Email:
Article: Involuntary Sterilisation Threatens Rights of Disabled Women
By Gosia Stawecka
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 2012 (IPS) - In 1996, Maria Mamerita Mestanza Chavez, a 33-year-old Peruvian mother of seven, was threatened with imprisonment if she did not comply with the government policy of undergoing sterilisation. After suffering post-operative complications for which she was refused treatment, Chavez died nine days later.
After years of legal proceedings in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in 2003 the Peruvian government finally acknowledged international legal responsibility for its actions.
Chavez’s story is not the only case in which national law has forced women to undergo involuntary sterilisation. Although many women’s and disability rights organisations and other human rights bodies have condemned coercive sterilisation, thousands of women and girls worldwide are still denied the right to make decisions about their own reproduction.
Involuntary sterilisation, an operation which, without an individual’s consent, permanently ends his or her ability to reproduce, has occurred in regions with many different cultural backgrounds, ranging from the United States and Switzerland to Japan, China, Puerto Rico, Brazil and others.
The operation “has historically targeted…marginalised groups of women such as women with disabilities, women from ethnic minorities, indigenous women, low-income women and women living with HIV”, said Luisa Cabal, vice president of the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, at a side event organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the U.N. headquarters Sep. 13.
WHO estimates that over a billion people in the world, or approximately 15 percent of the global population, have disabilities. According to a WHO report, disabled women are particularly vulnerable to involuntary sterilisation.
Forced sterilisations on disabled women are often performed under the auspices of medical legal services or with the consent of court-appointed guardians, who have the authority to decide on behalf of the patient. Various justifications are offered for the procedure, including disabled women’s inability to parent, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, population control, or so-called menstrual management.
An international approach
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted in 2006 and ratified so far by 119 countries, recognises that disabled individuals have the right to make decisions freely and responsibly regarding their reproductive lives.
These rights and others were discussed at the Fifth Session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD, which concluded at U.N. headquarters Sep.14. This year’s conference focused on women and children.
Strongly advocating the rights of women with disabilities at the conference was Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, Jordan’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations.
In his remarks at the opening session, Hussein outlined the role Jordan’s Higher Council for Affairs of Persons with Disabilities (HCD) has played in raising awareness of and advocating for the rights of Jordanian women with disabilities who are subject to sterilisation, which he called a “misconceived and shameful practise”.
“The committee targeted parents, doctors and gynecologists, legal experts and judges as well as religious leaders to address this issue,” Hussein explained.
Despite the existence of the CRPD, disability is not even explicitly mentioned in the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), pointed out Ahmed Abul Kheir, Egypt’s ambassador and advisor to the Minister of Social Affairs. He urged the U.N. to tackle the issue at a high-level meeting of the General Assembly on disability and development in September 2013.
Government accountability
In 2011 five women with mental disabilities brought their case before the European Court of Human Rights. Each had involuntary undergone the process of tubal ligation without their informed consent. This case, Gauer and Others vs. France, remains open but is considered best example of how involuntary sterilisation can be effectively tackled by international institutions.
“A positive decision from the court in this important case would have a tremendous impact on reinforcing the autonomy of women with disabilities with respect to their reproductive health,” said Yannis Vardakastanis, president of the Brussels-based European Disability Forum, in a press release. “States are under an obligation to take measures to prevent such violations and to investigate and prosecute them to the fullest extent when they do occur,” he added.
Nevertheless, preventive measures and support services are often limited and insufficient, according to Cabal, the Centre for Reproductive Rights vice president.
“Governments and health institutions have weak or inadequately implemented informed consent policies, guidelines, procedures to protect patient rights,” she said. “There is very little accountability for the ethical and human rights violations.” “The human rights obligations of each state requires the adoption of all necessary measures – legislative, budgetary, judicial and administrative – to ensure women with disabilities access to reproductive health services,” Cabal told IPS. States must also establish accountability mechanisms to ensure laws and policies are fully implemented. Moreover, victims of forced sterilisation must have access to the court system to vindicate their rights, Cabal said.