Promoting human rights for women and girls with disabilities: The 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women

Written by Lisanne van der Steeg and Srushti Mahamuni

The 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) was from Monday, 11 March – 22 March, with the theme of “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”. Globally, 10.3% of women live in extreme poverty today. At CSW68, governments, civil society organisations, experts and activists from across the world came together to discuss actions and investments that can end women’s poverty and advance gender equality.

Representatives from the Liliane Fonds, Srushti Mahamuni, who is an advocacy and SRHR advisor, and Lisanne van der Steeg, who is a lobby and advocacy advisor, attended CSW68 along with their Youth with Disabilities Council representatives. Their purpose was to advocate for the rights of women and girls with disabilities and ensure that UN Women, as well as all member states and organisations working on women’s rights, include women and girls (in all their diversity) with disabilities in all their efforts to advance human rights. Read the full statement from Liliane Fonds.

Care and support 

Over the two weeks I was at CSW 68, many important and interesting events happened. During the week, in different side events, there was a lot of attention to the care economy and the unfair burden that care work has on women and girls. In these discussions, the main focus is on the caregiver, but how do we make sure that the care receiver, e.g. Children with a disability, are involved in these discussions, and how do we make sure that their interests are at the centre of decision-making?

SRHR 

Women, girls and gender diverse folks are disproportionately affected by poverty, thereby affecting their (sexual and reproductive) health outcomes. Overlapping vulnerabilities such as disability, age, ethnicity, and location are further compounded by stigma to hinder access to accessible, affordable, acceptable and quality SRHR services for women, girls and gender diverse people. The anti-rights movement pushback around the world threatens the advances for gender equality that have been made over the years. All these issues are interconnected in different ways, but women, girls and gender diverse folk with compounded vulnerabilities always bear the brunt of it all. At CSW, we called upon CSOs and member states to recognise the interconnectedness of our struggles and break out of our single-issue silos. We emphasised the need to advocate for much-needed policy and societal changes that first and foremost see women, girls and gender diverse folk as whole human beings with a right over their own bodies, decisions and wellbeing. Let’s reimagine a global economic architecture that recenters those most minoritised (including BIPOC women, girls, gender diverse, neurodiverse, queer, and disabled folk) such that we truly leave no one behind.

Agreed conclusion 

During CSW, member states negotiate for an agreed conclusion. In a women’s rights space like this, attention is paid to intersectionality, so it gives an opportunity to discuss the issues of women and girls with disabilities. However, it has not yet been integrated into every aspect of the conference and, unfortunately, has been overlooked many times. A big win this year is that in the agreed conclusion, there is a paragraph that especially asked for action to improve the position of women and girls with disabilities:

Respect, protect and fulfil the rights of all women and girls with disabilities, including by addressing all barriers that prevent or restrict their full, equal and meaningful participation in decision-making and in the design, management, resourcing and implementation of policies and programs, including when it comes to addressing poverty, strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective, as well as health, quality education, distance learning, productive employment and decent work, including remote work for women with disabilities, and rehabilitation and other independent living support services and assistive technologies that enable them to maximise their wellbeing and realise their independence and autonomy and ensure that their priorities and rights are fully incorporated into policies and programmes, and developed in close consultation with them; the full CSW68 conclusions.