The United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) have released a draft General Comment on Article 6 of the convention: Women with disabilities.
General Comments provide a detailed interpretation of an article or issue relating to the convention. These formal documents provide guidance to States Parties, including Australia, on how they should interpret and implement specific articles in the convention.
WWDA contributed significantly to informing the development of the General Comment through written submissions, contributing to UN events and side-events, and through our ongoing collaborations at the local, national and international level.
In their General Comment, the committee reiterate a number of important points:
**International laws and policies have historically neglected or failed to account for women and girls with disability. This invisibility has perpetuated multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls with disability.
**As a population, women and girls with disability are a diverse group, representing a range of social, cultural, economic and political backgrounds, ethnicities, sexualities, experiences of disability, religions, and gender identities.
**The convention requires states parties to not only prevent discrimination against women and girls with disability, but actively adopt and implement measures that support the development, advancement, empowerment and authority of women and girls with disability as rights holders.
**While there has been some progress toward improving the status of women and girls with disability in policy and legislation, there remains much work to be done, including work across the three key areas of violence, discrimination, sexual and reproductive rights.
For further information:
Access Draft General Comment 3 (2016) Article 6 [DOC]
Find out more about the CRPD