The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) will meet in Geneva in November 2014 for its 53rd session. During the session, the CAT Committee will review Australia’s 4th and 5th periodic reports on the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In 2013, Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) provided the CAT Committee with documentation to help inform its Review of Australia. In September 2014, WWDA provided the CAT Committee with a Submission providing an update on escalating and urgent human rights violations, which WWDA has asked the Committee to consider in the context of Australia’s review. WWDA’s brief Submission addresses: violence against people with disabilities in institutional and residential settings (particularly sexual violence perpetrated against disabled women and girls); Forced/Involuntary sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities; and, Forced/Involuntary Electroshock (ECT) of women and girls with disabilities. Copyright WWDA 2014.
Note: WWDA’s Submission was provided to the CAT Committee with two attachments:
DPP v Kumar [November 2013] [PDF] [Word]
Frohmader, C. (2013) ‘Dehumanised: The Forced Sterilisation of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia’ [Submission PDF] [Submission Appendices PDF] [Submission and Appendices Word]