Transcript Recognition, respect and rights: disabled women in a

Recognition,
respect and rights:
disabled women in
a globalised world
A/Professor Helen Meekosha
Women with Disabilities Australia &
School of Social Sciences and International
Studies, University of New South Wales,
Sydney Australia
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谢谢邀请我告诉
Thank you for inviting me
我非常在中国荣幸并且被激发在这里以您
I am very honoured and excited to be here
with you in Guangzhou, China
Organising with disabled women
• Worldwide disabled women have not achieved
same level of equality as non disabled women
or as disabled men.
• Yet disabled women often at forefront of
organising, networking for change and
supporting each other.
This paper
• This paper gives an overview of status of
disabled women
• Describes how disabled women organise for
social change
• Identifies some major issues disabled women
face
• Briefly describes the work of Women with
Disabilities Australia
How do we think and talk about
disabled women ?
• Being a woman and being disabled involves
issues with bodies
• But not just about biology
• Social practices and cultural traditions
construct how we talk and think and act
towards disabled women – often demeaning,
stigmatising and abusive
• But disabled women are also proud, strong,
artistic, good mothers and good at organising.
Disabled women and girls an overview
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325 million disabled women worldwide
Majority live in developing countries
Data collection disabled women limited
On all social indicators women do less well
than men- income, employment, education,
literacy
• UNICEF study in Nepal – boys survival rate
with polio twice that of girls
Disabled
women
organise for
change
collectively
and individually
• Sufiya, 8, holds a photograph of herself at a protest Bhopal, India,
Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007. She was born with birth defects after the
Union Carbide idisaster in Bhopal India
Disabled women
organising
collectively
Rashida Bee and Champa
Devi outside Union Carbide
in the US on hunger strike
in 2003
Disabled women
and individual acts of
Resistance
Carrie and I saw this cool punk girl in a wheelchair
disappearing down a escalator on the London
underground. Smiling back up at us as she saw
our disbelief and recognition.
Then in the quiet of the evening Carrie practised
and without any trouble, (overcoming initial
fears with me holding on first) She became the
latest ,disabled, underground, wheelchair,
escalator surfer. How cool is that. However we
did eventually get told off by the station
manager...
London Underground 2006
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86598108@N00
/345522488/
Key Issues : Violence
• Disabled women 3 times more likely to be victims
than other women
• Not recognised as a crime
• Accessible information about rights is very limited
• Physical means of fleeing a violent situation, (such as
accessible transportation) is often unavailable.
• Unlikely to being referred to a shelter because
assumed that such agencies do not or are unable to
cater for their needs.
Key Issues :Sterilisation
• ‘Forced sterilisation’ is
a procedure which results in
sterilisation in the absence of the consent of the individual.
• The politics of eugenics (stop disabled women and men from
reproducing)
• Sterilisation is a form of violence that violates the rights of
disabled women and girls to
– form a family,
– decide on the number of children they wish to have,
– gain access to information on family planning and reproduction, and
retain their fertility on an equal basis with others
Action in Australia by disabled
women
• To develop universal legislation which prohibits
sterilisation of any child unless there is a serious
threat to health or life;
• To address the cultural, social and economic factors
which drive the sterilisation agenda;
• To commit resources to assist disabled women and
girls and their families and carers to access
appropriate reproductive health care; and,
• To create the social context in which all women and
girls are valued and respected.
Key Issues : Motherhood and
parenting
Key Issues : Motherhood and
parenting
• Discriminatory attitudes and prejudicial
assumptions
• Coerced abortions
• Lack of reproductive health care
• Poorly managed pregnancy and birth
• Lack of financial support and equipment
• Removal of babies from disabled women
Women with Disabilities Australia
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Founded 1994
Winner of the National Violence Prevention Award 1999
Nominee, French Republic's Human Rights Prize 2003
Nominee, UN Millennium Peace Prize for Women 2000
“an opportunity to work together as women with disabilities to
build confidence, self esteem and positive expectations about
life's goals.”
• Winner of the
National Human
Rights Award
December 2001
Challenges and Successes
• Dealing with authorities
• Negotiating the local, the national and the
global
• Using the new communication technologies
• Forming strategic alliances
Conclusions: Moving forward with disabled
women at an international level
• We must both celebrate our achievements
and condemn the abuses of our human rights.
• Society needs to recognise the harm done to
disabled women, but also recognise our
creativity and many talents.
• The global nature of these conferences, show
that disabled women have much to learn from
each other and much to offer in making the
world a more democratic and caring place.
• Thank you for listening !
• 谢谢听 !