According to the UN Women, one in three women around the world experience violence in their lifetime, often at the hands of someone they know and trust. Of all women who were victims of homicide globally in 2012, almost half were killed by intimate partners or family members.
Compared to our peers, women with disability experience significantly higher levels of all forms of violence more intensely and frequently and are subjected to such violence by a greater number of perpetrators.
Beginning today, WWDA will be joining the global #orangetheworld 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign to encourage action and investment in the elimination of all form of violence against all women. We will be calling specifically on the Australian Government to enact a range of recommendations to end the scourge of violence against women and girls with disability.
Find out more about the campaign:
http://www.unwomen.org/…/in-focus/end-violence-against-women
Join the conversation using the #orangetheworld and #16days hashtags on Facebook and Twitter.
WWDA 16 Days Campaign 2016
DAY 1International Day to End Violence Against Women According to the UN Women, one in three women around the world experience violence in their lifetime, often at the hands of someone they know and trust. Of all women who were victims of homicide globally in 2012, almost half were killed by intimate partners or family members. Compared to our peers, women with disability experience significantly higher levels of all forms of violence more intensely and frequently and are subjected to such violence by a greater number of perpetrators. Beginning today, WWDA will be joining the global #orangetheworld 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign to encourage action and investment in the elimination of all form of violence against all women. We will be calling specifically on the Australian Government to enact a range of recommendations to end the scourge of violence against women and girls with disability. Find out more about the campaign: Join the conversation using the #orangetheworld and #16days hashtags on Facebook and Twitter. |
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DAY 2WWDA welcomed the progress made to include violence against women with disability in the Australian Government’s Third Action Plan under the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children. However, it has been a year since the release of the Report from the Senate Inquiry into Violence, Abuse and Neglect of People with Disability in Institutions and Residential Settings, and the Australian Government is yet to respond. In our submission to the Senate Inquiry, WWDA and DPO Australia made 30 recommendations, the first of which was for the Australian Government to immediately establish a Royal Commission into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in Australia. Today, we reiterate our call for the Australian Government to immediately establish a Royal Commission into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in Australia. #orangetheworld#16days#16daysofactivism#VAW Links: Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 3Today, WWDA calls on the Australian Government to ensure that – consistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations, and recent specific recommendations from the UN Committee on the CRPD and UN Special Rapporteurs – women with disability are resourced and supported to lead, and be central to, the development of all programs and efforts to reduce violence against women and girls with disability. The wording of this infographic comes from a recent conference where Victoria Lee, from the UN Treaty Bodies’ International Disability Alliance, made the point that women with disability have the right to be involved in everything that affects our world, not just that which is ‘about us’ or ‘about disability’. #orangetheworld#16days#16daysofactivism#VAW Orange The World Campaign [Image] A white background overlaid with an orange line drawing of a woman’s face. She has a stern expression. The hashtag #orangetheworld and the words “Nothing without us” appear above the WWDA and DPOA logos. |
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DAY 4Around 60% of Indigenous women who have experienced violence also have a disability. Globally, indigenous women and girls face the highest levels of violence across all populations. WWDA calls on the Australian Government to ensure that policy and programmatic responses to violence against women, and, responses to gendered disability violence, are intersectional, well resourced and have the capacity to address institutionalised racism and discrimination against women and girls with disability who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 5Forced sterilisation, forced abortion, and forced contraception constitute egregious forms of sexual violence against women and girls with disability and are a violation of the right to freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. WWDA calls on the Australian Government to IMMEDIATELY withdraw its Interpretative Declarations on CRPD Article 12 [Equal recognition before the law], Article 17 [Protecting the integrity of the person] and Article 18 [Liberty of movement and nationality]. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 6It is estimated that more than 70% of women with disability have experienced violent sexual encounters at some time in their lives. Of women with an intellectual disability, some 90% have experienced sexual violence. More than two-thirds of these women (68%) have experienced sexual violence before they turn 18 years of age. Violence against women and girls with disability across the world continues unabated, unreported and unaddressed. WWDA calls on all Governments to #orangetheworld by prioritising the rights, need and experiences of all women and girls with disability. #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 9Compared to our peers, women with disability experience significantly higher levels of all forms of violence more intensely, more frequently, and are subjected to such violence by a greater number of perpetrators. WWDA calls on the Australian Government to take immediate action to establish an independent, statutory, national protection mechanism under specific purpose legislation, and with broad functions and powers to protect, investigate and enforce findings in relation to all forms of violence against people with disability, regardless of the setting in which it occurs and regardless of who perpetrates it. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 10People with disability, including a significant number of women and people who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, continue to be held in prisons, mental health facilities and other institutional settings without conviction or access to due legal process. Today, WWDA calls on the Australian Government to adopt the recommendations in the recently tabled report on the Indefinite Detention of People with Cognitive and Psychiatric Impairment, by the Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs. These actions should be accompanied by the urgent ratification and domestic implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and the establishment of an independent national preventive mechanism to monitor places of detention, including prisons, forensic facilities, juvenile justice detention centres, disability justice centres and mental health facilities. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 11Accurate and accessible information is a prerequisite for the active, free, informed, relevant and meaningful participation of women and girls with disability in all matters, including local, national and global efforts to end gendered disability violence. WWDA calls on the Australian Government to ensure that all government departments and agencies at all levels, provide accurate and accessible information concerning issues relevant to women and girls with disability which can support women and girls with disability to meaningfully contribute to, and participate in, all policy matters. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 12My rights matter. Our rights matter. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 13Chemical, mechanical and physical restraints are a form of violence, under the CRPD and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), In consultation with people with disability, the Australian Government should conduct a comprehensive audit of laws, policies and administrative arrangements underpinning forced treatment and restrictive practices with a view to introducing reforms to eliminate laws and practices that relate to forced treatment and restrictive practices that inherently breach human rights. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 14Women with disability experience extensive discrimination in the justice system. A common impact of violence for mothers with disability is the removal of their children by authorities on the basis of parental disability. Because of this, women with disability often do not report experiences of violence due to fear of losing their children. WWDA calls on the Australian Government, through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), to commission a national inquiry into the legal, policy and social support environment that gives rise to the removal of babies and children from parents with disability, at a rate at 10 times higher than non-disabled parents. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 15Despite the great work of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australia remains one of the few liberal democracies in the world that does not have a national bill of rights. In practice, this means that many people who experience violations of their human rights, including women and girls with disability, have limited legal redress. Today, WWDA calls on the Australian Government to establish and enact a comprehensive, national, judicially enforceable Human Rights Act that fully incorporates Australia’s international human rights obligations into domestic law. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign |
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DAY 16The perpetration of violence is not restricted to a few rogue individuals, is not confined to disability support settings, and is not limited by state or territory borders. It is a national epidemic warranting urgent national leadership and action. Wide ranging systemic failures in legislation, policies and service systems underpin the conditions that give rise to violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability. WWDA calls on the Australian Government to urgently: • Establish a Royal Commission into violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability in Australia. • Establish an independent national statutory watchdog to protect, investigate and enforce findings regarding violence, abuse and neglect of people with a disability. • Coordinate the development of nationally consistent Disability Justice Strategies across governments to ensure that people with disability are supported to access the same legal protections and redress as the rest of the community. #orangetheworld #16days #16daysofactivism #VAW Orange The World Campaign
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