On the eve of International Human Rights Day, 10th December, WWDA is excited to release our Human Rights Toolkit for Women and Girls with Disability.

During the past 6 months, Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA) has worked hard to develop and publish a suite of resources focused on key human rights issues for women and girls with disability in Australia.

Through a series of engagement processes conducted by WWDA over the past 18 months, including a National Forum for Women and Girls with Disability in April 2016, women and girls with disability in Australia have prioritised several key human rights issues which they believe warrant urgent attention from Governments, the broader disability, women’s and human rights sectors, WWDA, and women with disability themselves. These key issues include:

  • The right to freedom from all forms of violence;
  • The right to decision-making;
  • The right to participation;
  • Sexual and reproductive rights;
  • Economic empowerment

On International Human Rights Day (10 December), which also marks the end of the 16 day global campaign to address all forms of violence against women, WWDA is delighted to launch our resources focused on key human rights issues for women and girls with disability in Australia.

Over two million women and girls with disability live in Australia – that’s approximately 20% of all women and girls. Like everyone else, we all have different lives and experiences. We also have different personal experiences of disability. As a group, however, women and girls with disability experience unfair treatment in many areas of our lives. We are treated unfairly because of our disability, because we are women, and, because society is structured for able-bodied people. WWDA has developed these resource materials to explore some of these key issues facing women and girls with disability and to provide practical information for leading change.

The suite of resources are all available free of charge and we strongly encourage everyone to access and use them in our individual and collective efforts to advance the human rights of women and girls with disability.

You can access the full tookit here on the WWDA website: http://www.wwda.org.au/papers/toolkit