2023-11-25 08:50:00
‘I decide’
60 million women and girls in the European Union live with a disability (25.9% of the female population) and face multiple and intersectional discrimination in all areas of life.
Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy, including the freedom to make one’s own decisions, as well as legal capacity, are fundamental principles that are not guaranteed. As a consequence, we cannot exercise all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal footing with other people.
Despite the fact that all the countries of the European Union have ratified the United Nations treaties on the rights of women (CEDAW) and on the rights of people with disabilities (CRPD), many States have adopted legal measures that strip us of that ability to exercise our rights and be able to make decisions about our own lives.
The historical and systematic denial of the right to make our own decisions is a reflection of the discriminatory and harmful stereotypes against women and girls with disabilities that highlights the inability of governments, society and, in many cases, even families. , to understand and respect our dignity as women and girls, in short. These restrictions contrary to human rights, disguised as protection mechanisms, are forms of sexist and ableist violence against us.
By virtue of these procedures that deny our dignity, many of us have lost custody of our daughters and sons and we have felt intimidated by our abusers due to the threat of being legally incapacitated, of being annulled as citizens.
In practice, this means ignoring our opinions as women with disabilities and substituting our decisions for those of third parties, including those who act as legal representatives, service providers, guardians, and family members. A more cruel form of violence cannot be imagined.
For all these reasons, on this November 25, European women and girls with disabilities WE DEMAND:
1. That a specific European Macrosurvey be launched on the violence to which women and girls with disabilities are subjected, which takes into consideration restrictions on making our own decisions as a form of sexist and ableist violence.
2. The effective application in European Union policies of the regulatory requirements contained in the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention).
3. That universal accessibility be guaranteed in all countries of the European Union, including any type of support that is necessary for the decision-making of women and girls with disabilities, in all centers and services providing care to women victims of gender violence, the courts and awareness-raising campaigns and information materials.
4. That access to justice is guaranteed for women and girls with disabilities, including free legal assistance, ensuring full accessibility of all procedural guarantees, contemplating procedural adjustments appropriate to age, access to information and communication, human assistance and support products and technologies that women with disabilities choose in our relationships with the justice system.
5. That surveillance mechanisms be put in place urgently by independent authorities so that residential institutions, mental health institutions, special education schools, day centers, occupational workshops, special employment centers and others, are supervised effectively to prevent cases of neglect, mistreatment, abuse, harassment and violence against women with disabilities, including the loss of their legal capacity.
6. That the future Directive to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence takes into consideration women with disabilities and criminalizes forced sterilization and contraception and coercive abortion as forms of violence against women.
7. That the European Disability Card incorporates a gender perspective and guarantees women and girls with disabilities free and safe mobility in the European Union, protecting them against violence, trafficking and sexual exploitation.
8. That the European Union designates 2025 as the “European Year of Women and Girls with Disabilities” as a turning point to strengthen awareness about our specific situation and fundamental rights, and to implement acceleration measures that truly change the trajectory of our destiny.
BECAUSE IT IS OUR LIFE, WE DECIDE!
NOT ONE LESS
Manifesto 2022 of the CERMI Women Foundation.
#NosotrasSiContamos Campaign for 25N 2023 of MENTAL HEALTH SPAIN.
#MENTAL #HEALTH #SPAIN #joins #manifesto #25N #CERMI #Mujeres