Joint side event on Beijing +30 and reaching women with disabilities
The International Disability Alliance (IDA), in collaboration with Inclusive Futures and UN Women, hosted a 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) side event marking 30 years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The event reflected on the 30 years of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, gains made, challenges and gaps as well as good practices including the implementation of 6 principles of Disability Inclusive Development, and partnership with multilateral organizations.
Moderated by IDA’s Intersectionalities and Cross-Movement Collaboration Senior Officer, Rosario Galarza, the session brought together women with disabilities, advocates, and policymakers including Ms. Merit Hietanen, Senior Equality and Inclusion Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Sanja Tarczay, President of the World Federation of Deafblind (WFDB) and IDA Board Member who highlighted IDA’s role in advancing rights of women with disabilities at UN human rights and political bodies as well as capacity strengthening through the BRIDGE programme.
The event featured discussions from Ruth Mkumutula, Executive Director of Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA), members of the African Disability Forum and Dulamsuren Jigjid, Executive Director of the Culture Centre for the Deaf in Mongolia, who set the scene for the conversation highlighting experiences of women with disabilities in Beijing+30 processes in Africa and in Asia. In her remarks Ruth highlighted the challenges that women with disabilities had faced in their efforts to engage with women rights movement in the region, the importance of citizen data to inform advocacy including the joint report by IDA, DIWA, World Federation of the Deaf and Making it Work project. Dulamsuren acknowledged that despite several Asia-Pacific countries submitting national reports on Beijing+30, in Mongolia for instance, women with disabilities particularly those who are deaf, had little to no involvement in drafting of the national reports. They also highlighted the continued low participation of women with disabilities at the CSW and the underfunding of organizations of women with disabilities.
“For change to happen, women with disabilities must be physically visible in all advocacy spaces. The substantive recommendations from the CEDAW Committee were not only a result of written reports but also because women with disabilities participated in Malawi’s state report review in large numbers. The low numbers of women with disabilities in CSW must change” - Ruth Mkumutula, Executive Director of Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA)
The third segment of the event focused on good practices and partnerships featuring Sally Nduta, Executive Director of United Disabled Persons of Kenya, Manisha Maharjan, Project Manager at Handicap International Nepal who discussed the six DID principles highlighting how their implementation led to more OPD engagement including women with disabilities in different projects including employment and inclusive education. Jahda Khalil, General Director of the Arab Organization of Persons with Disabilities highlighted AOPD’s role in ensuring inclusion of women with disabilities and their representative organizations.
On partnership and collaboration, Dr. Abul.H. Monjurul Kabir, Senior UN Coordination Adviser and Global Team Leader for Gender Equality, Disability Inclusion, and Intersectionality at UN Women reaffirmed UN Women commitment to continue engaging women with disabilities at all levels. Dr Monjurul emphasised the importance of national advocacy as change at global level can only be informed by national efforts and intervention. Highlighting the importance of the Global Disability Summit, Dr Monjurul called upon governments to make commitments that advance disability and gender inclusive development, specifically commitment on allocating funding to disability inclusive and gender responsive programmes.
In her closing remarks, Mirriam Nthenge, Human Rights Adviser, acknowledged the upcoming GDS as an important platform for committing for change in particular the call for governments and development partners to commit 15 percent of international development programmes at national level to pursue disability inclusion (15 percent for 15 percent) and endorse the Amman-Berlin Declaration.
IDA delivers a statement at CSW69
Following the side event, Dr. Sanja Tarczay delivered a speech during the General Discussion of the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69). She emphasized the urgent need for collective action through a multi-stakeholder approach to drive equality and human rights and active engagement of women with disabilities in gender equality processes.
The IDA delegation led by IDA’s Human Rights Adviser, Mirriam Nthenge at CSW69 also participated in an interactive dialogue on Decent Work, highlighting the importance of inclusive policies that address the specific needs of women with disabilities in employment and economic empowerment.
The discussions throughout the event highlighted the need of ensuring that women with disabilities are actively and meaningfully engaged in gender equality processes at all levels. Strengthening their participation through their representative organizations is essential to advancing inclusive policies and meaningful change.
You can find Sanja’s full speech during the General Discussion here.
