The manifesto is reproduced in its entirety below:
March 8, 2023
International Women’s Day
Manifest ‘I decide’
Today, March 8, International Women’s Day, women and girls with disabilities commemorate this date by transferring to public opinion our concern about the systematic non-compliance with the rights of women around the world and especially about the exclusion in which we women with disabilities live and the existing obstacles to be able to make decisions on issues that affect our lives.
The participation and leadership of women is above all a basic human right that must be guaranteed in order to ensure the exercise of all other human rights and fundamental freedoms without exception: education, employment, health, sexual and reproductive rights, life in the community, family relations, political participation, economic empowerment, access to justice, including the right of girls with disabilities to be heard and express their opinion on matters that concern them.
Both the CConvention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women such as Goal No. 5 of the 2030 Agenda, focused on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, recognize that women have the right to participate on the same terms as men at all levels and in all aspects of public life and decision-making.
However, the participation of women is often circumscribed to clearly feminized areas, and in our case, in addition to areas related to disability, without our agency being recognized as women. This means that the commitments to promote equality between women and men in the formal structures of representation and in decision-making are not fulfilled, since as a general rule women continue to be underrepresented. This situation is more worrying when we talk about the participation in decision-making of women with disabilities, due to the multitude of barriers and obstacles that we have to overcome.
In many countries around the world, laws are still in force whose ultimate goal is to strip us of our ability to exercise our rights and make decisions about our own lives. We must not forget that until very recently it was considered that these restrictions, articulated around judicial incapacitation, were ‘measures that protect us’ without being aware of the flagrant violation of human rights that their application actually entailed. Think of the thousands of women who have been incapacitated as a prerequisite to being sterilized without their consent. This is just a small sample of what has happened in our country and that has affected the lives of so many women with disabilities.
In this context, the situation of women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities, deafblindness or other communication difficulties and those who are still institutionalized or legally incapacitated is especially worrisome.
But… what have these mechanisms for substitution of will meant in practice? So let our opinions be ignored and replaced by decisions made by other people, including those who act as legal representatives, service providers, guardians, guardians and family members.
The historical and systematic denial of the right to make our own decisions is a reflection of the discriminatory and harmful stereotypes that are still in force against us and highlights the inability of society, and in many cases of families, to understand and respect our dignity. as women and girls, as people, in short.
Recognizing ourselves as unique protagonists of our own lives requires not only the implementation of training, information and empowerment actions about our own rights, but also an arduous task of denouncing and raising awareness of the entire society in general in order to unearth paradigms. trainees and sexists contrary to human rights.
For all these reasons, on this March 8th, women with disabilities WE DEMAND:
- That an empowering application of the support system for decision-making be carried out in application of the Ley 8/2021, that overcomes the paternalistic model of the previous legislation, establishing for this the aid, services and assistance that women need in all areas of life, respecting, in any case, our right to decide, as well as our will and preferences.
- That the reforms that are undertaken in the Law 39/2006, of December 14, for the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for people in a situation of dependency take into account the emancipatory aspect of personal autonomy, promoting measures, resources and services that make it easier for women with disabilities to make our own decisions.
- That together with the eradication of forced sterilization from our legal system, actions are taken to inform and train women with disabilities about their health and their sexual and reproductive rights with the aim of guaranteeing decision-making in this area.
- That public policies be adopted for access to the labor market that allow us to strengthen our autonomy when making decisions that affect us. This implies, among other things, proceeding to review the framework of incentives established in general to promote the hiring of people with disabilities, in the sense of increasing in the case of women with disabilities, as well as those with intense needs support said by 40%, so that preference is given to their recruitment.
- That special temporary measures and reasonable adjustments be adopted to improve our participation in decision-making, offering us accessible tools and mechanisms so that we can participate fully, freely, equally and inclusively. This implies the promotion of organizations of women and girls with disabilities as a mechanism to enable our participation in public life.
- That public authorities collaborate with organizations that represent women and girls with disabilities in order to guarantee our direct participation in all decision-making processes in the public sphere, in a safe environment, especially with regard to the development of policies related to women’s rights and gender equality, and gender-based violence against women, including sexual violence and sexual abuse.
- That the future Recommendation no. 40 of the CEDAW Committee, focused on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, take women with disabilities into consideration.
NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US!
March 8, 2023
CERMI WOMEN FOUNDATION
www.fundacioncermimujeres.es