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By Dinah Radtke [log in to unmask] Vice Chair Human Rights DPI Chair of the Women’s Committee DPI Presentation to the 4th International Women’s Conference in Paestum, Italy Today I want to talk to you about our visibility, about our voice, the voice of women with disabilities and I want to talk about the fact that we have to lobby more for our rights, for our Human Rights. Disabled women’s rights are women’s human rights. During the last 20 years the awareness of disabled women about themselves has grown. But if we look at ourselves objectively we can clearly see that there is no real place for us in society. We are often not recognised as women, as women with disabilities. We have to admit honestly that most of the time we are regarded as disabled persons. It is a fact that disabled women and girls are much marginalized and mostly invisible to policy makers Only in Germany the situation for us is different. We are recognised by our government as a minority group with special needs. Honestly I do not know of any other country in Europe where women with disabilities appear and are considered in legislation apart from anti-discrimination legislation. But I know that we have been lobbying very hard for years in Germany before we had some success. But what about our status, our visibility within the disability movement. Here the situation is different. We became stronger although the movement is still male dominated. We became more self confident. We have been publishing books describing our situation. We founded self-help groups We now even have networks of women with disabilities, quite strong networks. We defined our specific issues like for example our status as women, our sexuality, motherhood, bioethics, violence, sexual violence, education and professional training, jobs, health care and personal assistance. In all of these issues the needs of disabled girls and women are different from those of disabled boys and men.. We need to stress again and again that disabled women and girls are subject to massive human rights violations without regard to their age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, class and religious or other status. We have to draw attention to this fact. We have to make society, the politicians aware of this and demand change, we demand recognition of our rights. We really have to become more active, we have to fight for our rights. And we need allies in this fight. I just came back from New York last month where I attended the 49th Session of the Commission on the status of women. About 6000 women from 161 countries where present mostly from non governmental organisations. It was a so called mainstream event. That means mostly non disabled women at least not visibly disabled women were gathered. Somehow I had the feeling that partly I was still regarded as a poor disabled person who has to be pitied. Only when I started to speak and distributed position papers on disabled women and girls, the situation changed. The women noticed that I had something to say in a political way. They agreed that it is necessary that disabled women demand change, demand inclusion, demand to be treated as equals Again I noticed, because it was so obvious, that we have to work more, to combine our efforts to make disabled women and girls visible, heard and respected. We have to talk about our special issues and demand political change. We need strong anti-discrimination legislation, we need legislation on personal assistance and we need legislation to punish and fight violence against disabled girls and women to name only some of the most pressing issues. Disabled girls and women need to be included and especially mentioned in all relevant laws and regulations passed by our own governments. We demand to be included in all the relevant documents and conventions of the United Nations. For example at the moment we lobby to be especially mentioned in the Convention on the Rights and the dignity of disabled people and in the Millenium Declaration. We must not be satisfied if we are told that disabled women are mainstreamed within laws or agendas. We have to insist on being mentioned explicitly otherwise we will be forgotten. We have become increasingly invisible through mainstreaming. We are women who face the same gendered discrimination whether in our personal lives, in our organisations and in society. For example, violence against women is most prevalent with disabled women. This is in part due to a disabled women’s increased dependence on family or institutions- both of which can become violent. As for violence within institutions and at home, disabled women are further burdened because their complaints are not taken as legitimate, it is not believed that violence happened to them. Amnesty International’s collection of data on sexual violence has only two lines on violence against disabled women and girls. In all of the print material and publications that have been distributed at the United Nations in March 2005 I have seen no mention of disabled women and girls. Unfortunately this is a fact. We have to change this. We have organised this 4th European conference of disabled Women to draw attention to the fact that disabled girls and women are especially vulnerable to violence in a place where you should feel safe namely at home. Not only are disabled women subject to violence committed by relatives but also committed by their own assistants. We have to make this fact public and we have to demand that we need accessible, barrier-free Crisis Centres, we need counselling. Peer counselling, we need self defence courses, we need police and courts who respect us and believe us. But although violence may happen in this close relationship of personal assistance it is an indispensable service which we need in order to live a self-determined life. That’s why we need good legislation on personal assistance services in all countries. Every disabled girl and woman (boy and men as well) must get the support they need depending on the severity of the disability no matter whether it is a physical, sensory, intellectual, and other disability. This enables us to participate in all human activities. Examples include, parenting, sexual activities, education, employment, environmental development, leisure, culture and politics. I know very well that in many European Countries disabled girls and women can only dream of something like personal assistance. They have to be content with the support their environment concedes to them. I can only say don’t be afraid and ashamed to demand to live a dignified life. Don’t be content to be cleaned and to be fed. Live has to offer more to us than that Even if it sounds totally unrealistic to you in your situation. You have to fight for your dream of a better life. I know that it is extremely difficult to demand rights when you are constantly told that there is no money for the assistance and for the financial support you require. But you have to insist, you have the right to participate in the life of the community, to live a decent life. And we the disabled women have to define what a decent life means for us. Not the politicians nor anybody else. In the kit which we distribute here we you will find the proposal for a European legislation on personal assistance This will help you in your lobbying, in you advocacy. It is unacceptable that an estimated number of one million disabled European women and men have to live in residential institutions, marginalised and invisible. For this forgotten population personal assistance is one of the keys for moving back into the community A voice of our own is needed to present facts, convincing arguments and politically viable solutions that promote self-determination in every-day life and break the culture of dependence that we have been exposed to far too long. We need a strong voice of our own to get a change. We need to empower ourselves, We need training courses in financing, advocacy, self-defence, peer counselling and peer support for ourselves. We need to network far more among ourselves. Disabled women must know about their rights. These right have to be in easy understandable language and in braille so that all disabled women can understand them We need allies in this fight for the recognition of our rights, our Human Rights therefore we ask the international women’s movement to support disabled women and girls. Include and make visible disabled women’s rights in all of your publications and programs. When you are hosting events consider the varying needs of participants so that can be included. We need to live in a world where there is peace, where our human rights are respected, where we can live a self-determined life with the support we need, where our diversity is regarded as cultural richness. We disabled women and girls we are strong, we have courage and we are beautiful. ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.