Violence Against Women with Disabilities

                                     Updated September, 2020

Definition and Prevalence

Violence against women and girls with disabilities is a widespread global problem: across the world, it is estimated that 19% of women have a disability compared to 12% of men. This pervasive issue is an intersection of gender-based and disability-based violence.[1]  The types of disabilities most relevant to this discussion are long-term physical, mental, intellectual, psychosocial, or sensory impairments that may limit full, effective, and equal participation in society, without reasonable accommodation or accessibility.[2]

Furthermore, it is an underreported and under-analyzed problem: there is a lack of acknowledgement and resources directed toward addressing the violence experienced by women with disabilities.[3] Although the collection of data on people with disabilities has increased, the information is often not separated by sex or gender, making it difficult to study the effects of disabilities specifically on women and girls.[4] The information contained in here may not show the severe gaps in literature.

The current research on violence against women tends to focus on the cultural attitudes and structural barriers that lead to violence against women.[5] There is little attention paid to the attitudes and perceptions society has ingrained into women and girls with disabilities about their own worth and value, which may lead them to not understand sexual violence as such or believe sexual advances and violence are warranted.[6]

Ableism often clouds discussion and analysis of the problems that people with disabilities face.[7] While women with disabilities and other intersecting identities are more vulnerable to abuse, their vulnerability stems not from their disability but from a lack of accessibility or accommodations, and the ableist perceptions held by those around them.[8]

Violence against women and girls with disabilities occurs around the world. In the United States, 1 out of 4 women has a disability. Despite being roughly 25% of the female population, women with disabilities are nearly 40% of rape survivors.[9] In Canada, 60% of women with disabilities are likely to experience some form of violence during their lives as adults.[10] Australian women with disabilities are 40% more likely than their nondisabled counterparts to experience domestic violence, and 70% of Australian women with disabilities have been sexually abused.[11]

In the developing world, statistics on disability often underrepresent the percentage of women and girls with disabilities. In Uganda, statistics show that 20% of people have a disability, but this is likely far lower than reality.[12] More than one third of Ugandan women with a disability surveyed had experience sexual abuse.[13] In Nepal, 58% of women with disabilities experienced violence by family members and neighbors, 39% by intimate partners, and 12% by strangers.[14] In Columbia, 72% of women with disabilities have experienced domestic violence at the hands of a spouse or partner.[15]

Violence against women and girls takes many forms a result of gender, as a result of disability, and as a result of being a woman with a disability.[16]  These intersecting identities lead to women with disabilities experiencing more violence than both their nondisabled female counterparts and their disabled male counterparts.[17] Furthermore, half of all women with disabilities have been assaulted more than 10 times.[18] Additional research shows that abusers inflict more severe and frequent violence on women with disabilities.[19]

Women with disabilities face many different types of physical, emotional, mental, and psychosocial violence such as bullying and discipline in schools, social isolation, belittling based on disability[20], shock therapy, deliberately being harmed to be a more sympathetic beggar, lack of access to reproductive care and an increased risk of being trafficked.[21] [22]

Abusers may also remove or threaten to remove modes of access, such as communication aids, support animals, wheelchairs, or canes.[23] Additionally, abusers may financially abuse women with disabilities by reducing or controlling their access to and use of funds. Caregivers or others may also manipulate or steal from the women for whom they are supposed to be caring.[24]

Human traffickers often target women and girls with disabilities. Women and girls with disabilities are more likely to be forced into child marriage, to experience genital mutilation, and to be trafficked.[25] Traffickers may especially target women and girls with disabilities because a) they can be thought of as undesirable within their families so families will traffic them, and b) if traffickers remove the accommodations that survivors need to report behavior, they are less likely to be reported.[26] For example, a UNICEF report regarding Thai prostitution circles found that traffickers have intentionally trafficked deaf girls and women because they would be less able to report this abuse "in a world where neither their customers nor their employers or fellow sex workers are able to speak sign language."[27]

Furthermore, women with disabilities are more routinely denied information about sexual or reproductive health, which leads to higher rates of reproductive complications and confusion about unwanted sexual contact and coercion.[28] Forced sterilization is especially common for disabled women, as is the denial of access to reproductive health care.[29] Additionally, forced contraceptive use or forced hysterectomies are performed on women and girls with disabilities to make managing menstruation easier or avoid pregnancy.[30] Sometimes, this lack of health care or forced procedures leads to preventable long term injuries.[31]

The lack of reproductive education provided to women with disabilities also leads to higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, including HIV.[32] This increased rate is especially prevalent among youth with disabilities because sexually transmitted infections and HIV are most likely to be transmitted during adolescence.[33]

Causes and Contributing Factors

In areas of armed conflict or unrest, women and girls with disabilities disproportionately experience increased vulnerability of abduction, abuse, and sexual violence.[34] Research in conflict zones of Burundi, Ethiopia, Jordan, and elsewhere show that women with disabilities are routinely raped and experience other sexual violence.[35] Women and girls with intellectual disabilities are most likely to be subjected to sexual violence.[36]

Women with disabilities are often left behind in conflict zones when their families or caregivers flee.[37] If they find a refugee camp, they often experience neglect and exploitation, and their basic needs and accommodations are not likely to be provide for.[38]

Abusers of women with disabilities range from significant others and other family members, to hired caregivers and institution workers, to teachers and school administrators, to other community members. The vast majority (97 to 99 percent) of persons abusing women with disabilities are someone that the woman knows and relies on.[39] Most often it is their spouse/partner; caregivers, personal assistants, and family members.[40] Transportation providers may abuse women with disabilities as well.[41] Additionally, when women with disabilities are abused by a caregiver, they are further isolated because they depend on the abuser for assistance.[42] Not only are family members the most likely abusers of women and girls with disabilities, non-abusive family and community members are less likely to intervene when a disabled child is experiencing abuse than when a nondisabled child is.[43]

Women with disabilities are often abused within care facilities or other institutions. Although facilities can provide community and resources that people with disabilities may not have at home, they can also provide opportunities for abuse. Forms of abuse in institutions include:

  • forced sex with workers, caretakers, or other residents
  • being beaten, slapped, or hurt
  • no activity for work or pleasure, and always being bored
  • forced sterilization or abortions
  • being locked in a room alone
  • ice baths or cold showers as punishment
  • forced medication (tranquilizers)
  • having to undress or be naked in front of other people
  • watching other people be abused or hurt
  • being tied down or put in restraints (unable to move)[44]

Another big area of concern for women with disabilities is their treatment while incarcerated.[45] People with disabilities who are imprisoned face increased punishment within prisons compared to their nondisabled counterparts.[46] Many times prison staff illegally withhold accommodations and required medical care from incarcerated people with disabilities.[47] This is a global problem, spanning from the United States, to Ghana, Sudan, and Uganda, to Croatia, all in which women with disabilities are systematically imprisoned.[48]

In the United States, for example, a quarter of the nonincarcerated female population has a disability compared to fifty percent of the prison population.[49] Imprisonment is not only an ineffective response to the needs of women with disabilities, but also a costly use of state resources.[50] For example, it costs Los Angeles County nearly $50,000 per year to house a woman in prison, while it is only a little over $20,000 per year to house her in community housing and provide treatment.[51] In reports from Ghana and Sudan, prisoners with disabilities were subject to exceptionally harsh conditions, including being chained or tied down indefinitely, forced to sleep, bathe, defecate and remain in soiled conditions.[52] Some of these prisons will force people with mental disabilities to fast for weeks on end in attempt to "cure" or "heal" them.[53]

Disability and gender intersect to affect the manner of violence against girls/women and the response of their communities.[54] "Girls and young women with disabilities face up to 10 times more gender-based violence than those without disabilities. Girls with intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence."[55] For example, a study showed that sixty-two percent of women with disabilities younger than 50 years had experienced violence since the age of 15.[56] Furthermore, the same study reported that women without disabilities experienced sexual violence at a third of the rate as women with disabilities.[57] And a study of North Carolina women showed that women with disabilities are 4 times more likely to experience sexual assault than women without disabilities.[58]

Sometimes gender-based violence occurs because of the incorrect belief that women with disabilities are not capable of having consensual, fulfilling sexual lives.[59] This can lead abusers to believe (also incorrectly) that their victims will not feel the effects of such abuse or that their victims are less deserving of consensual sex.[60] Or it can lead abusers to believe that they are doing their victims a "favor" by providing a sexual experience for them, which they would not otherwise have – this belief is also incredibly incorrect and demeaning.[61]

Furthermore, women with disabilities are more likely to be considered unfit to be parents.[62] As a result, they're more likely to be forced to have abortions or give their children up for adoption.[63]

Additionally, females with disabilities are valued less than their male counterparts, at nearly all ages and stages of life. Parents and family members are more likely to kill their female infants born with disabilities though "mercy killings" than their male infants born with disabilities.[64] Stigma and myths about disabled women lead to increased feelings of isolation, and can lead to additional violence. An often cited example is the myth held in some parts of Africa that sleeping with a virgin will cure HIV leads to men with HIV raping women with disabilities under the misguided belief that women with disabilities are not sexually active.[65]

There are many women who have become permanently disabled as a result of gender-based violence. Women are at increased risk of becoming disabled during their lifetimes due to "neglect in health care, poor workforce conditions, and/or due to gender-based violence." [66] Domestic abuse can permanently disable a woman: "intimate partner violence is one of the most common causes of injury to women."[67] It can cause physical damage to the head/neck/face as well as gynecological problems as a result of forced sex.[68] It can also cause psychological problems including traumatic brain injuries from strangulation.[69] Furthermore, partners are more likely to leave their spouse if she becomes disabled after their marriage.[70] Some women become disabled due to the conditions accompanying labor migration or human trafficking, where women with and without disabilities may acquire new impairments.[71]

Women also become disabled or have reduced abilities as they age.[72] This is an especially important consideration because women, on average, live longer than men.[73] As the aging population grows, the world should expect to care for more disabled women.

There are also intersectional considerations for women of minority ethnic backgrounds. Indigenous women, in particular, face additional forms and levels of violence. Indigenous women with a disability must contend with "intersecting forms of discrimination because of their gender, disability, and ethnicity," which leaves them "at an even greater risk of experiencing violence."[74] Indigenous women with disabilities suffer higher rates of school dropouts, unemployment, poverty, incarceration, illness and death, and violence.[75] These women are often further isolated from the resources and services that may prevent or respond to abuse, and as a result, it often takes longer for an indigenous woman with disabilities to access housing, independent care, and other services. [76]

Women with disabilities who live in rural or inaccessible locations face increased barriers based on their location.[77] Increasingly conservative cultural norms, physical isolation, and decreased education and access lead rural women with disabilities to see increased rates of violence, yet fewer resources for support.[78]

Consequences: Legal & Social/Health

Living with physical and/or cognitive disabilities creates numerous barriers for women and girls, who already live in many ways as second-class citizens. Globally, women and girls with disabilities are less likely to attend and complete schooling than their disabled male and nondisabled female counterparts.[79] As a result, they may have lower economic and social prospects. Just under 42 percent of girls with disabilities finish primary school, compared to 51 percent boys with disabilities and 53 percent girls without disabilities.[80] Furthermore, female students with disabilities receive on average just under 5 years of education, while male students with disabilities receive roughly 6 years and female students without disabilities receive about 6 ¼ years.[81]

Because many girls have limited access to education, those who communicate nonverbally and/or through signs often create an informal signing system that only their family understands.[82] This makes it more difficult for such women to communicate with others who do not know the meaning of these signs. The lack of formal sign language education creates a barrier for women who sign because they cannot live in the world as independently as others, including in economic pursuits, social activities, or even communicating with authorities to report crimes or other incidents of abuse.

Women and girls with disabilities have the lowest levels of sexual-reproductive health[83] because community and family members do not believe they need or are capable of understanding this type information.[84] Further, social exclusion from schools and other community centers, girls with disabilities are more often not to be allowed to continue "through grades in which sexual education is taught."[85] Stigma against providing sexual education to women/girls with disabilities makes it harder for them distinguish between appropriate behavior and violence/abuse.[86]

Women and girls with disabilities often have less access to reproductive education and care because of stigma about disability and premarital sex; further, health care centers often do not have the necessary accommodations that would allow people with disabilities to access them. These biases lead providers to deny contraceptives and STI screening to women and girls with disabilities.    [87] Additionally, a young person with disabilities who must be accompanied by a caregiver is less likely to seek education and care.[88] Similarly, provider's quality of care often varies depending on their patient's type of disability, especially if the patient needs an interpreter.[89] This lack of access to reproductive services and education is often attributable to the lack of legal support available to young people with disabilities.[90]

People with disabilities also face barriers to economic independence, civic participation, and public accessibility.[91] Globally, only about twenty percent of women with disabilities are employed, compared to fifty-three percent of men with disabilities and thirty percent of women without disabilities.[92] When women with disabilities are employed, they are considered less often for promotion or advancement.[93] In developing countries, this difference is exacerbated: between seventy-five to one hundred percent of women with disabilities are unemployed, even though they continue to do the majority of the housework and child care.[94]

As a result, women and girls with disabilities are at increased risk of gendered violence because of economic situation/poverty, and many impoverished women and girls with disabilities will use transactional sex to secure basic needs.[95] Girls with disabilities are more likely to be sex trafficked, forced into domestic work, or married as children, all to either relieve their parents of the burden of caring for them or to increase their perceived value by earning money or being married.[96]

Furthermore, because so many women and girls with disabilities live in impoverished regions, their value in their communities is reduced as community members may consider them a higher burden than their production capacity.[97] One woman in northern Uganda has been told repeatedly, "You are useless. You are a waste of food. You should just die so that others can eat the food."[98]

Gender often removes access to justice: in many countries, women need a male relative to represent them in accessing justice systems. And even though women with disabilities experience far higher rates of violence, they are far less likely to report this violence than are men with disabilities.[99] Thus, disability stigma compounds issues women already face in reporting abuse.

There is also a pervasive problem in law enforcement's unwillingness and inability to prevent gender-based violence and provide redress. In many cultures, social norms are to keep issues within a family/community, making law enforcement unresponsive to women attempting to report abuse.[100] Cases regarding violence against women with disabilities are taken less seriously or treated differently: "When the violence is perpetrated by personal assistants, family members and/or friends, it is often considered to be a problem that can be addressed by the social service system rather than considered to be a crime that should be addressed by the police and/or the criminal justice system."[101] Furthermore, police often perceive women with intellectual disabilities as less credible witnesses.[102] As a result, "persons with disabilities were more likely than persons without limitations to say they were very dissatisfied with the police response,"[103] and only three percent of sexual abuses cases are reported to police.[104]

Many women with disabilities are especially vulnerable because of their disability if their abuser is also a caregiver. Most states do not provide the type of support necessary to allow these women experiencing domestic abuse to report their caregiver and lose care.[105] Women with intellectual disabilities additionally often face challenges in recognizing abuse, reporting it, and being believed.[106] Officials and organizations that receive reports have not been trained to handle reports.[107] Many women with disabilities are denied their full human rights, not only in legal proceedings to seek justice, but also in decisions made about their wellbeing, such as sterilization.

Furthermore, people with disabilities face more difficulty in immigration proceedings, most notably in the United States.[108] People with mental disabilities are routinely and systemically denied the opportunity to make claims against deportation from the United States, even when exhibiting clear signs of the need for counsel, such as being delusional, not knowing their name, or not knowing what deportation was.[109]

The novel coronavirus 2019 (“COVID-19”) creates distinct issues and barriers for women and girls with disabilities. Women and girls with disabilities are more vulnerable because of the accessibility needs, the attitudes about disabilities, and the systemic inequities already present when the pandemic began.[110] For some women and girls with disabilities, pre-existing health conditions make catching COVID-19 more dangerous than for the average person.[111] For women with disabilities who are living in institutional facilities or group housing, there is an increased risk of contracting COVID-19.[112] Additionally, because women with disabilities have less economic mobility, they will suffer more severely from recession and economic downturn.[113]

The WHO lists the following barriers that people with disabilities may face during the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • Barriers to implementing basic hygiene measures, such as handwashing (e.g. handbasins, sinks or water pumps may be physically inaccessible, or a person may have physical difficulty rubbing their hands together thoroughly);
  • Difficulty in enacting social distancing because of additional support needs or because they are institutionalized;
  • The need to touch things to obtain information from the environment or for physical support;
  •   Barriers to accessing public health information;
  • Depending on underlying health conditions, people with disability may be at greater risk of developing more severe cases of COVID-19, exacerbating pre-existing respiratory, immune system, heart, or diabetes conditions;
  • Barriers to accessing health care. People with disabilities may also be disproportionately impacted by the outbreak because of serious disruptions to the services they rely on.[114]

Systemic inequalities and discrimination already present in healthcare will lead to women with disabilities to receive poorer care as a result of their gender, their disability, or both. Governments and health providers must adopt and implement facially neutral policies.[115] For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidelines that may be adopted or used as a model by health care providers.[116]

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased rates of abuse at home. As domestic abuse rates for women with disabilities are already higher, it is reasonable to assume that their abuse has also increased.[117] In France, domestic violence reports have increased by around 30%, the same rate as helpline calls have increased in Cyprus and Singapore.[118] Canada, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom have all seen increased rates of domestic violence and need for emergency shelter.[119]

The United Nations recommends the following steps should be taken during the COVID-19 pandemic[120]:

  • Consult persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, in particular with organizations of women and girls with disabilities, with regard to COVID-19 containment and mitigation measures to ensure these are disability-inclusive, gender-sensitive and accessible.
  • Ensure inclusive, gender-sensitive, accessible and non-discriminatory healthcare to minimize mortality of those with disabilities and underlying health conditions.
  • Ensure individuals’ health, safety, dignity, and self-autonomy in the community and the continuation of health care support and services for person with disabilities and their families for an independent living.
  • Provide solutions for remote work and education that are disability-inclusive and gender-sensitive, such as reasonable accommodation at home and access to adapted and accessible materials.
  • Ensure inclusive and non-discriminatory public information and communication to be accessible to all, including to those with limited access to technology.
  • Ensure social protection measures are gender– and disability–responsive, and provide targeted financial relief and income support for persons with disabilities and their caregivers who are disproportionately impacted by the crisis.
  • Promote disaggregation of data by age, sex and disability and gender analysis of the barriers faced by women and girls with disabilities.

Response: Legal & Social

The primary positive responses implemented by states have through legal and policy planning.[121] States across the world have passed laws to secure rights and create programs for women and girls with disabilities.[122] States have also included women with disabilities in their long-term development plans and have created development goals specifically for women with disabilities.[123] Importantly, many countries have partnered with NGOs and local advocacy groups in developing plans, goals, and programs for women with disabilities.[124] Too often, people with disabilities are left out of the conversation regarding their own rights and wellbeing; states and other well-meaning actors should be exceptionally conscious to avoid sidelining those they are trying to assist.[125]

International organizations have also made efforts to include women and girls with disabilities in reporting and planning for the future. Many departments within the United Nations have taken an intersectional approach to include disability in policy development.[126] Many advocacy groups whose primary focus is not on advancing disability rights have similarly integrated disability advocacy in their work.[127]

The YWCA recommends the following considerations that allies and advocates, including individuals and community leaders should be especially cognizant of[128]:

  • Believe survivors when they communicate their experiences in whatever way works for them, whether through interpretation, drawing or speech.
  • Don’t make assumptions about people’s disabilities and what they need based on appearance or communication style—Let them communicate what they need from you.
  • Partner with disability rights and service organizations in your community to ensure survivors with disabilities are able to physically and conceptually access your services.
  • Respect their privacy while also understanding reporting mandates for your jurisdiction. While states have varying laws regarding privacy, especially for guardianship rights and abuse of vulnerable populations including some adults with disabilities, always check it out first and get the survivor’s consent before talking to anyone else.
  • Ensure that your safety planning measures include considerations for disability, service animals, and medical needs.
  • Invest in recruitment, training and leadership development of people with disabilities on your boards, on staff and in advisory roles.

There are mechanisms of support that would both prevent and remedy violence against women with disabilities. The DAWN group from Canada lists the following types of responses:

  • Sensitive Counsellors that know about trauma and the importance of using an intersectional, disAbility lens when looking at the context of violence in her life
  • Financial Security
  • Information, Awareness and Empowerment for Women with DisAbilities - learning about their rights and safety planning
  • Holistic Health Services - services that see the woman in her entirety rather than just addressing the ‘medical’ issues related to her disability
  • Support Groups for Women with DisAbilities and Deaf Women
  • Woman-Centered and Collaborative Services - services working together with the woman to create a safe and supportive community for her and her children. [129]

The United Nations, additionally, has specific recommendations that would assist in data collection and data-driven policy creation. These recommendations include a uniform standard for data collection, which would assist in national and international data comparison.[130]

The UN further recommends nations specifically take the following actions:

  • Strengthen the normative and policy frameworks for equality and the full participation of women and girls with disabilities in society and development, including, inter alia, ending violence and all forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities;
  • Promote the full and effective participation of women and girls with disabilities in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural spheres, and advance their empowerment and leadership roles at all levels of decision-making;
  • Ensure equal opportunities and strengthen equal access to information, education, employment, financial services and health services, including sexual and reproductive health, and enhance accessibility in infrastructure, transportation and technologies, including information and communications technologies for women and girls with disabilities;
  • Strengthen data collection and capacity-building to increase the availability of reliable data disaggregated by sex, age and disability for effective policy development, implementation and monitoring;
  • Advance coordination and accountability mechanisms to initiate work for women and girls with disabilities and build partnerships and networks at the national, regional and global levels among, inter alia, Governments, United Nations entities, intergovernmental organizations and civil society organizations, including women’s organizations and organizations of women and persons with disabilities, for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in line with the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.[131]

With the proper framework, states and organizations can begin to lower the barriers presented to women and girls who live with disabilities.

 

 



 

[1] Disabled Women's Network of Canada, "Factsheet: Women with Disabilities and Violence," accessed Jul. 21, 2020, https://www.dawncanada.net/media/uploads/page_data/page-267/english_-_violence_-_january_2014.pdf.

[2] Violence Against Women and Girls, "Brief on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 29, 2020, https://www.vawgresourceguide.org/sites/vawg/files/briefs/vawg_resource_disability_formatted_v6.pdf.

[3] Disabled Women's Network of Canada, "Factsheet: Women with Disabilities and Violence," accessed Jul. 21, 2020, https://www.dawncanada.net/media/uploads/page_data/page-267/english_-_violence_-_january_2014.pdf.

[4] General Assembly, Secretary General, Situation of women and girls with disabilities and the Status of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto, (Jul. 28, 2017), U.N. Doc. A/72/227, ¶ 10.

[5] Violence Against Women and Girls, "Brief on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 29, 2020, https://www.vawgresourceguide.org/sites/vawg/files/briefs/vawg_resource_disability_formatted_v6.pdf.

[6] Violence Against Women and Girls, "Brief on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 29, 2020, https://www.vawgresourceguide.org/sites/vawg/files/briefs/vawg_resource_disability_formatted_v6.pdf .

[7] Access Living, "Ableism 101: What it is, what it looks like, and what we can do to to [sic] fix it," accessed Jul. 13, 2020, https://www.accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/ableism-101/.

[8] Learning Network, Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, "Violence Against Women with DisAbilities and Deaf Women: An Overview," accessed Jul. 21, 2020, https://www.dawncanada.net/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Learning-Brief-12.pdf.

[9] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence Among People with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 28, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/datasources/nisvs/svandipv.html.

[10] Disabled Women's Network of Canada, "Factsheet: Women with Disabilities and Violence," accessed Jul. 21, 2020, https://www.dawncanada.net/media/uploads/page_data/page-267/english_-_violence_-_january_2014.pdf.

[11] Human Rights Watch, "One Billion Forgotten: Protecting the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities," accessed Jun. 29, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/2014%20disabilities_program_low.pdf

[12] Human Rights Watch, "Uganda: For Women with Disabilities, Barriers and Abuse," accessed Jul. 29, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/08/26/uganda-women-disabilities-barriers-and-abuse#.

[13] Human Rights Watch, "Uganda: For Women with Disabilities, Barriers and Abuse," accessed Jul. 29, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/08/26/uganda-women-disabilities-barriers-and-abuse#.

[14] Violence Against Women and Girls, "Brief on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 29, 2020, https://www.vawgresourceguide.org/sites/vawg/files/briefs/vawg_resource_disability_formatted_v6.pdf.

[15] Violence Against Women and Girls, "Brief on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 29, 2020, https://www.vawgresourceguide.org/sites/vawg/files/briefs/vawg_resource_disability_formatted_v6.pdf.

[16] Human Rights Watch, "One Billion Forgotten: Protecting the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities," accessed Jun. 29, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/2014%20disabilities_program_low.pdf

[17] Human Rights Watch, "One Billion Forgotten: Protecting the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities," accessed Jun. 29, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/2014%20disabilities_program_low.pdf

[18] YWCA, "Survivors with Disabilities Facts," accessed Jul. 27, 2020, https://www.ywca.org/wp-content/uploads/Survivors-w-Disabilities-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

[19] YWCA, "Survivors with Disabilities Facts," accessed Jul. 27, 2020, https://www.ywca.org/wp-content/uploads/Survivors-w-Disabilities-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

[20] Learning Network, Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, "Violence Against Women with DisAbilities and Deaf Women: An Overview," accessed Jul. 21, 2020, https://www.dawncanada.net/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Learning-Brief-12.pdf

[21] Learning Network, Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, "Violence Against Women with DisAbilities and Deaf Women: An Overview," accessed Jul. 21, 2020, https://www.dawncanada.net/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Learning-Brief-12.pdf

[22] United Nations Population Fund, Young Persons with Disabilities: Global Study On Ending Gender -Based Violence, and Realising Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, by Megan McCloskey and Stephen Meyers (New York: United Nations Population Fund, Jul. 2018), 24, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Final_Global_Study_English_3_Oct.pdf.

[23] Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Thematic study on the issue of violence against women and girls and disability, Doc. No. A/HRC/20/5.

[24] Learning Network, Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, "Violence Against Women with DisAbilities and Deaf Women: An Overview," accessed Jul. 21, 2020, https://www.dawncanada.net/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Learning-Brief-12.pdf

[25] United Nations Population Fund, Young Persons with Disabilities: Global Study On Ending Gender -Based Violence, and Realising Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, by Megan McCloskey and Stephen Meyers (New York: United Nations Population Fund, Jul. 2018), 32, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Final_Global_Study_English_3_Oct.pdf.

[26] United Nations Population Fund, Young Persons with Disabilities: Global Study On Ending Gender -Based Violence, and Realising Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, by Megan McCloskey and Stephen Meyers (New York: United Nations Population Fund, Jul. 2018), 34, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Final_Global_Study_English_3_Oct.pdf.

[27] Children's Fund, Children and Young People with Disabilities Fact Sheet, (May 2013), United Nations, https://www.unicef.org/disabilities/files/Fact_Sheet_Children_and_Young_People_with_Disabilities_-_2013.pdf.

[28] Kathleen C. Basile, Matthew J. Breiding, and Sharon G. Smith,  "Disability and Risk of Recent Sexual Violence in the United States," Am J Public Health, May 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4985079/.

[29] Violence Against Women and Girls, "Brief on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 29, 2020, https://www.vawgresourceguide.org/sites/vawg/files/briefs/vawg_resource_disability_formatted_v6.pdf.

[30] Violence Against Women and Girls, "Brief on Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities," accessed Jul. 29, 2020, https://www.vawgresourceguide.org/sites/vawg/files/briefs/vawg_resource_disability_formatted_v6.pdf.

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