Direct Link to Full 16-PAGE 2016 Submission for India UPR Review in 2017:

http://womenenabled.org/pdfs/WEI%20WWDIN%20India%20UPR%20Submission%20September%202016.pdf

Joint Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review: India

Women & Girls With Disabilities

Third Cycle

Prepared by: Women Enabled International (WEI)

With inputs from: Women with Disabilities India Network

Women Enabled International (WEI) and the Women with Disabilities India Network jointly submit this report for consideration during the third Universal Periodic Review of India. WEI advocates and educates for the human rights of all women and girls, emphasizing women and girls with disabilities, and works to include women and girls with disabilities in international resolutions, policies, and programs addressing women’s human rights and development. The Women with Disabilities India Network is a group of women with disabilities who have come together to form an independent platform to promote and support the work of women with disabilities at the national and international levels.

Joint Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review: India

Third Cycle

1. Introduction

1. Women and girls with disabilities[i] around the world face discrimination and human rights abuses based on both their gender and disability. Despite India’s international commitments to ensure the rights of women with disabilities, they experience human rights violations that are distinct from those experienced by other women. These human rights violations manifest in all areas of their lives but are particularly present when women with disabilities experience gender-based violence—by family members, partners, caregivers, and in state- and privately-run institutions—and in their exercise of sexual and reproductive rights, where they are disproportionately subjected to forced and coerced sterilization, contraception, and abortion. Women with disabilities also face barriers to accessing justice in India, compounding these rights violations.

2. During India’s previous Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs) in 2008 and 2012, it did not receive any recommendations that specifically addressed the human rights abuses faced by women with disabilities.[ii] However, in 2012, India accepted recommendations to “improve measures to prevent violence against women and girls” and “[t]ake further measures to ensure that all women without any discrimination have access to adequate obstetric delivery services and sexual and reproductive health services, including safe abortion and gender-sensitive comprehensive contraceptive services.”[iii] As this submission shows, India has failed to implement these recommendations, particularly regarding women with disabilities.

3. The submission provides background on the situation of women with disabilities in India and summarizes specific human rights abuses they face, including gender-based violence, violations of sexual and reproductive rights, and barriers to accessing justice. This submission also provides suggestions for questions and recommendations to direct towards India during its third UPR.

1. Background

4. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, approximately 15% of people worldwide are persons with disabilities, and women with disabilities account for 19.2% of the total population of women around the world.[iv] However, official statistics from India indicate a much smaller percentage of persons with disabilities in the country. The 2011 Indian census indicates that there are approximately 27 million persons with disabilities in India, which accounts for only 2.2% of the total population, and that there are approximately 12 million women with disabilities in India, accounting for less than half of the population of persons with disabilities nationwide.[v] This significant difference between India’s official statistics and the estimates by WHO and the World Bank are likely the result of data gaps in India, particularly as disability does not figure into the other routine macro-data collection endeavors of the state.[vi]

International Obligations

India has signed and ratified a number of international human rights treaties relevant to women with disabilities.[vii] In 2007, India ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which provides a comprehensive, human rights-based approach to disability and specific protections for the rights of women with disabilities. The CRPD takes a twin-track approach, addressing the rights of women with disabilities explicitly in Article 6 and incorporating protections against abuses that primarily affect women—such as violations of sexual and reproductive rights and

[i] This report will address the situation of women with disabilities throughout the life cycle. Any reference to “women with disabilities” should be interpreted to include girls with disabilities unless otherwise indicated.

[ii] In 2012, states also called on India to ensure the right to education for children with disabilities and to ensure better protection for persons with disabilities in general (Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: India, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/21/10 (2012).). Additionally, in 2006 and 2012, India accepted a number of recommendations aimed at eliminating discrimination against women and ensuring women’s empowerment (Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: India, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/21/10 (2012); Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: India, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/8/26/Add.1 (2008).).

[iii] Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: India, Recs. 138.79, 138.153, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/21/10 (2012).

[iv] World Health Organization and World Bank, World Report on Disability 28-29 (2011).

[v] Office the Registrar General and Census Commissioner India, Census of India 2011: Data on Disability (2013), available at http://www.disabilityaffairs.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/disabilityinindia2011

data.pdf.

[vi] For instance, disabiltiy does not factor into the Sample Registration System (SRS), the National Crie Records Bureau (NCRB) and the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS). See Women with Disabilities India Network, Special Chapter 1a: Women with Disabilities 118 (2014), available at http://womenenabled.org/pdfs/mapping/

Women%20with%20Disabilities%20in%20India.pdf.

[vii] In addition to the CRPD and CEDAW, India has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), all of which contain human rights protections affecting women with disabilities. India has also signed but not yet ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), placing on it an obligation to uphold the object and purpose of this Convention.

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