Content Note – post discusses violence against people with disability
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Disability Royal Commission (DRC) public hearing 17 (part 2): The experience of women and girls with disability with a particular focus on family, domestic and sexual violence commences on Monday 28th March.
This hearing will be held in Hobart in person at the Old Woolstore starting at around 10am and will run all week until the afternoon of Friday 1st April, 2022. Most days will finish at around 4 pm.
The witness list is now available and you can find it here: https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/public-hearing-17-part-2-witness-list
The witness list includes mostly women, girls, feminine-identifying and non-binary people with disabilities who are victim-survivors of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation sharing their stories. We acknowledge that these victim-survivors may have faced many barriers and challenges to having their stories heard, and also acknowledge the courage it has taken to appear at the hearing. These stories will be included in a final report to the Australian Government in September 2023 and will inform change for people with disabilities to live safer lives.
The WWDA team will be at the hearing venue and in the hearing room most days, and also have a separate room available to provide a chat, support, debrief or grab a drink. If you are at the hearing please feel free to connect with us.
The hearing will be livestreamed from the DRC website and you can watch it here: https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/ . Some of the stories may be emotionally upsetting and if you need support you can contact the DRC counselling team by email DRCenquiries@royalcommission.gov.au telephone 1800 517 199 or SMS 0459 906 629.
Also, if you would like to share your story with the Royal Commission it is not too late! They are still accepting requests to have a private session until 30 June, 2022 and taking submissions until 31st December, 2022. You can access FREE independent legal advice, counselling and supports to do this.
You can learn more about the Disability Royal Commission on our website at: https://wwda.org.au/campaign/disability-royal-commission/
[Image description: Pink background with a black heading in large print reading: ‘Public hearing 17:The experiences of women and girls with disability.’ Underneath is larger purple text reading ‘Hearing starts Monday 28th March’. At the bottom is purple text reading ‘#OurRoyalCommission’ and an image of two people with disabilities. One has long brown hair, red top and blue trousers and is standing and holding the hand of another person in a wheelchair with short dark hair, green jumper and brown trousers. There are half-circles of various colours around the edges of the image.]