Every 8 March, the world celebrates International Women´s Day. The theme of this year’s women’s day is “Connecting girls, inspiring futures”.
Geneva, 8 March 2012 – Today the international community celebrates International Women´s Day with a series of events which both celebrate and demand further the increase of women and girl’s fundamental rights around the world regardless of differences, such as nationality, ethnicity, economic and social status, and disability.
Women and girls with disabilities are considered to be one of the most marginalized groups of society, despite this, they continue to remain invisible in development policies and programs whose objective is to build a better future for women and girls around the world.
Girls with disabilities are at greater risk of experiencing violence and attacks on their physical and mental integrity, including sexual assaults and non-consensual procedures such as forced sterilization. They are also subject to multiple forms of discrimination in access to education because of factors such as age, gender and disability, in addition to the extra barriers facing all children with disabilities such as lack of access to transportation, lack of physical accessibility to school buildings, the absence of skilled teachers in sign languages, and the unavailability of accessible curricula, Braille and easy to read materials. This situation considerably decreases their possibilities of access to the labor market and to participate in the life of the community, thereby preventing their full development and empowerment.
Article 7(1) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD) states: “States Parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure the full enjoyment by children with disabilities of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children”. More efforts should be made to respect, protect and fulfill the right to education for girls with disabilities, in line with the provisions of the CRPD and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the CRC), in order to provide them the basis for their future development.
Diane Richler, Chair of IDA, states: “This day is an excellent opportunity to urge States, UN Agencies and civil society actors to adopt and implement appropriate policies and programmes to ensure that girls with disabilities fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children; States need to take all necessary measures and allocate the requisite resources to ensure that girls with disabilities can fully enjoy their right to education, and therefore obtain the necessary skills to participate in the social and economic activities of society and in decision-making processes in general. On this day, we highlight the importance of international cooperation in building national capacity for improving the living conditions of girls with disabilities in all countries so that they can play an active part in the construction of a better future for all”.
Contact: Stefan Trömel at stromel [at] ida-secretariat.org
IDA Website: www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InternationalDisabilityAllianceIDA
Twitter: http://twitter.com/IDA_CRPD_Forum
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