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SDG-CRPD Resource Package

OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (OHCHR)
December 2020

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OHCHR developed a package of resources to support realizing the Sustainable Development Goals for persons with disabilities. These include resources on policymaking (Policy Guidelines for Inclusive SDGs; Training Materials and Videos) and resources on monitoring (Human Rights Indicators on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and a Data Sources Guidance).

 

SDGs:

The Policy Guidelines on inclusive Sustainable Development Goals set out the main actions that should be used to develop policies to achieve the goals for persons with disabilities. Training Materials complementing the guidelines include tools to develop in-person and online trainings. The videos mirror the guidelines and can be used for training and awareness-raising activities.

 

There are Policy Guidelines, Training Materials and Videos for SDG goals 10, 16, 17, 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 11. There are thematic briefs for SDG goals 2, 6, 13, 8, 11, 9 and 17.

 

CRPD:

Presented article by article, the indicators are key to facilitating understanding and implementation of the Convention’s provisions. They provide guidance on actions to measure implementation of the CRPD and to track progress over time. Data sources guidance mirrors the human rights indicators and provides examples of different sources of data to inform the outcome indicators.

 

There are indicators and data sources guidance for articles: 1-4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33.

From words to actions: systematic review of interventions to promote sexual and reproductive health of persons with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries

HAMEED, Shaffa
MADDAMS, Alexander
LOWE, Hattie
DAVIES, Lowri
KHOSLA, Rajat
SHAKESPEARE, Tom
2020

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Persons with disabilities have the same sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) as non-disabled persons. Yet they face numerous barriers in their access to sexual and reproductive health services and their rights are often not met. Evidence on SRHR for persons with disabilities is sparse, particularly evaluations of interventions demonstrating ‘what works.’ This systematic review assessed interventions to promote SRHR for persons with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries.

The method involved searching for qualitative, quantitative or mixed method observational studies representing primary research, published between 2010 and 2019, using MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, Global Health and CINAHL Plus

 

BMJ Global Health 2020;5:e002903.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002903

Crimes against humanity: Decades of violence and abuse in Mexican institutions for children and adults with disabilities

AHERN, Laurie
BRIZUELA, Lisbet
MILLAN, Ivonne
RODRIGUEZ, Priscila
ROSENTHAL, Eric
October 2020

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In this report, Disability Rights International (DRI) has thoroughly documented and detailed human rights violations against people with disabilities - a culmination of the 20 years of work that DRI has carried out in Mexico. DRI’s investigations cover a wide range of institutions including orphanages, psychiatric hospitals, institutions for people with disabilities and for homeless people, among others. The documentation of such a large number of institutions provides an overview of a scale of violations of the rights of persons with disabilities in Mexico  

Introduction: disability, partnership, and family across time and space

VIKSTRÖM, Lotta
SHAH, Sonali
JANSSENS, Angélique
2020

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Notions of family life and romantic partnership, like notions of disability, have been culturally constructed and socially produced over historical time, and our understandings of these notions are being continually challenged and re-negotiated across time and space. Policies, institutions, and cultural practices across the globe have brought about changes to the construction of the family and to the rights and inclusion of disabled people in private and public life. This special issue brings together a collection of studies from different countries and time periods to explore the interplay between disability, romantic partnerships, and family life across the individual lifetime and between generations. With this interdisciplinary collection, we seek to merge disability research and research on family and partnerships through a life course lens. This offers unique insights and opportunities to interconnect his- torical and cultural location and changing social institutions with individual and family experiences. This introduction presents the eight studies in the collection and discusses them within a life course frame that views disabled people’s roles as partners, spouses, and members of a family. In so doing, it engages in an analysis of (dis)similarities concerning how family dynamics, romantic relationships, and disability have developed over time and in different spaces.

Access to basic needs and health care for Malawian prosthetic and orthotic users with lower limb physical disabilities: a cross-sectional study

MAGNUSSON, Lina
FINYE, Clifford
ENSTEDT, Catrin
May 2020

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Purpose: To investigate access to basic human rights such as health, a standard of living adequate for health, education, work, marrying and establishing a family, and voting for prosthetic and orthotic users with lower limb disabilities in Malawi.

 

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional design and a questionnaire were used to collect data from 83 participants.

 

Results: Most participants reported their overall physical and mental health as good (60 [72%] and 50 [60%], respectively) and said they could access medical care (69 [83%]). Fifty (60%) participants had access to food, 72 (87%) had access to basic water, and 55 (66%) lived in housing adequate for their health. Most participants had studied in school (74 [89%]) but only 27 (33%) of the participants were working. Forty-three (52%) were married and 53 (64%) had children. Seventy-six (92%) participants could vote if they wished.

 

Conclusions: Rurality and high costs of transport and medication increase the barriers to accessing several basic human rights for people with lower limb physical disabilities. Interventions to target these barriers and increase access to secondary school, employment, and income could improve health equity for people with physical disabilities in Malawi and similar contexts.

Accelerating Disability Inclusive Formal Employment in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda: What are the Vital Ingredients?

WICKENDEN, Mary
THOMPSON, Stephen
MADER, Philip
BROWN, Simon
ROHWERDER, Brigitte
March 2020

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This Working Paper provides an overview of disability as a concept and relevant global treaties and statistics, including evidence of trends and complexities in promoting disability inclusive employment broadly and with some focus on formal employment specifically. We describe the current situation in each of the four focus countries, demonstrating the similarities and differences between them. We then discuss some promising interventions that have been tried, usually on a small scale, in diverse settings, and which may be applicable in our four focus countries (Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda). Finally, we present the potential interventions that will be trialled in the Inclusion Works programme, using an innovation-driven, adaptive management approach.

 

The Inclusion Works programme (2018–2022), funded by the UK Department for International Development, aims to improve employment rates for people with disabilities in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. 

 

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the UK government or members of the Inclusion Works consortium.

Zero Project Report 2020: Inclusive education. 75 Innovative Practices and 11 Innovative Policies from 54 countries

BUTCHER, Thomas
et al
January 2020

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There are several sections in this report:

  • Executive summary
  • Impact of the Zero Project: Survey results
  • Innovative policies and practices: Factsheets and life stories
  • The Zero Project Impact Transfer accelerator programme
  • An analysis of ICT supporting innovations in inclusive education
  • SDGs, Data and inclusive education
  • Summary of report in Easy Read. 

Themes were:

  • Early childhood and preschool
  • Formal education (primary and secondary education)
  • Universities (tertiary education)
  • Vocational education and training
  • Non-formal education
  • ICT-driven solutions related to education/digital skills

Harmful cultural beliefs and practices, stigma and discrimination towards women and girls with disabilities: a toolkit for change

UNESCO OFFICE HARARE
UNITED NATIONS PARTNERSHIP TO PROMOTE THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
2020

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This toolkit serves to highlight the intersection between gender, culture and disability. Following the completion of a study titled Advancing the rights of women and girls with disabilities in Zimbabwe, a review of the interface of culture, gender and disability in Zimbabwe, it was evident that there were cultural and social issues not being adequately addressed in communities. 

This toolkit was formulated based on the study findings, dialogue with key disability stakeholders and principles of the CRPD.

The following is a list of the key articles from the CRPD that form the base of this toolkit:

  • Article 3: General principles (8 in total)
  • Article 6: Women with disabilities
  • Article 8: Awareness raising
  • Article 13: Access to justice
  • Article 23: Respect for home and the family
  • Article 25: Health

This toolkit strives to empower the trainer and the trainee(s) on the virtues encapsulated in the CRPD by localizing the concepts at community level in Zimbabwe.

Equal reproduction rights? The right to found a family in United Nations’ disability policy since the 1970s

VAN TRIGT, Paul
2019

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With the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2006, disability as an issue of human rights and international law can no longer be ignored. The history of this convention can be traced back to the 1970s, when disability was framed in United Nations (UN) declarations as a human-rights issue at the global level. One of the recurrent topics of debate during this trajectory was the right of people with dis- abilities to found a family. This right was far from self-evident and was evaluated very differently by various stakeholders.

This study follows the right to have a family in UN disability policy since the 1970s. The history of the family in relation to disability at the global level has been a neglected field of enquiry compared to other concepts such as gender and race. This study investigates how and why the right to found a family was framed in the Declarations on the Rights of Mentally Disabled Persons (1971) and Disabled Persons (1975), the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), the International Decade of Disabled Persons (1983 − 1992), the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993) and the UNCRPD in 2006.

The trajectory of the right of people with disabilities to found a family that emerges from these cases shows a change in the 1990s from a social-policy to a human-rights approach towards disability – which reflects a broader trend in global and local histories of human rights. In the case of reproductive rights of people with disabilities this change meant that the emphasis was laid more on providing a legal protection for the individual against the interference of others (so-called negative freedom) than on enhancing the opportunities for disabled people to practice their (positive) freedom.

Access to human rights for persons using prosthetic and orthotic assistive devices in Sierra Leone

MAGNUSSON, Lina
BICKENBACH, Jerome
January 2019

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Access to human rights of persons with disabilities who use prosthetic and orthotic assistive devices was assessed, and groups of participants were compared in terms of gender, residential area, income, and type and level of assistive device. The addressed areas were rights to: health, a standard of living adequate for health, education, marry and establish a family, vote, and work.

Questionnaires were used to collect self-reported data from 139 lower-limb prosthetic and orthotic users in Sierra Leone

 

Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation, Volume 42, 2020 - Issue 8

https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2018.1515267

Challenges faced by women with disabilities in accessing sexual and reproductive health in Zimbabwe: The case of Chitungwiza town

Tafadzwa RUGOHO,
France MAPHOSA
2017

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Background: Women with disabilities in Zimbabwe face numerous challenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health. Cultural belief still regards them as not sexually active. The government has also failed to promote policies that facilitate access to sexual and reproductive services by women with disabilities.


Objectives: The reseach objectives were to explore the challenges faced by women with disabilities in accessing sexual and reproductive health in Zimbabwe.


Method: The data were gathered using in-depth interviews with 23 purposively selected respondents. Thirteen women had physical disabilities, five were visually impaired, three were deaf and two were stammering. The respondents with physical disabilities were using wheelchairs, walking frames, prosthesis, crutches and caliper shoes. The participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 45 years. All interviews were transcribed and translated verbatim into English, and passages were extracted from the transcripts. Key themes and concepts were identified and coded to offer a rich framework for analysis, comparisons and presentation of the data.


Results: Negative perceptions of health personnel towards people with disabilities, disability-unfriendly infrastructure at health facilities and absence of trained personnel for people with disabilities (sign language) are some of the challenges involved.
Conclusion: The government, in partnership with other stakeholders, should address challenges faced by women with disabilities when accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Non-government, private hospitals and profit-making organisations should join hands with government in funding health requirements for women with disabilities.

Human rights toolkit for women and girls with disabilities. First edition.

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
October 2016

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A Toolkit for women or girls with disabilities to learn more about human rights and how this knowledge can be used to achieve change in their own lives or the lives of others. Following an introduction about why this Toolkit is needed,  a brief overview of five key human rights issues that women and girls with disability in Australia have identified as most important to them is provided. Section 3 provides information about what human rights are and also gives a brief overview about Australia’s international human rights obligations. Sections 4 and 5 focus on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), examining the main ‘Article’ from each, that deals with the important urgent issues that have been identified by women with disability in Australia, which are: Violence; Decision-Making; Participation; Sexual and Reproductive Rights; and, Employment. For each of these issues, the words of the main Article (as it appears in the CRPD and CEDAW) are provided and explained in practical terms, and examples are given of what governments have to know and do. Information from WWDA members and supporters about some of the key changes which need to happen is given. Different ideas of what women and girls with disability can do to help achieve change and promote the rights of all women and girls with disability are given and some sample letters and ‘talking points’ for phone calls to a local Member of Parliament, or a government Minister or advisers are provided.   

Using the human rights framework to promote the rights of children with disabilities : discussion paper|An analysis of the synergies between CRC, CRPD and CEDAW

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND (UNICEF)
2013

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"This paper provides an analysis of the synergies of three human rights treaties from the perspective of the rights of children with disabilities: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It has been developed to encourage understanding of how the three treaties mutually reinforce each other, and can be used to strengthen advocacy in respect of children with disabilities"

Sterilisation and intellectually disabled people in New Zealand—still on the agenda?

HAMILTON, C
2012

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Support through care and protection within a medical framework, rather than through the idea of independence within the least restrictive environment, continues to guide service provision for intellectually disabled people in the sexuality area. Past practices have included use of involuntary sterilisation. This article outlines the outcome of a search for information undertaken because of concerns that use of sterilisation-related procedures may remain embedded in contemporary approaches to sexuality support management. Verified instances of hysterectomy carried out between 1991 and 2001 were uncovered. Documents tabled at a Parliamentary Select Committee in 2003 expressing concerns about use in relation to young disabled girls were also found. Requests for sterilisation-related procedures exemplify how the right of all vulnerable citizens to full bodily integrity is currently adjudicated in New Zealand. It is suggested that further research is needed to pinpoint and address the underlying social customs through which requests for such procedures are negotiated and resolved.

Lady Health Workers (LHWs) as Flag Bearers for Children with Disabilities in Pakistan

LASI, S Z
QAYYUM, A
RAFIQUE, G
2012

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Purpose: This study explores the perceptions, knowledge and attitudes of LHWs towards children with disabilities in Pakistan. It considers the feasibility of utilising the LHWs for prevention, early identification and management of disabilities for these children in the community.

 

Methods: Two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with 15 Lady Health Workers (LHWs), and two In Depth Interviews (IDIs) with LHWs of both a semi-urban and a rural community of Pakistan.

 

Results: LHWs were found to have major concerns and strong emotions regarding children with disabilities. They also revealed the insensitive attitude of community members towards these children. While they understood the major types and magnitude of disabilities better than lay persons, they lacked the knowledge to manage these disabilities. Consanguineous marriages were identified as the main cause of disabilities. LHWs reported that education and health facilities were lacking in semi-urban and rural areas, and demanded that the government provide these facilities for the children. They also expressed their willingness to work for these children, provided they had the approval of higher authorities and were given proper training.

 

Conclusions: This qualitative exploratory study recommends that the existing primary health system be reviewed, and the possibility of introducing community based rehabilitation services, utilising LHWs’ services for children with disabilities, be examined. In this regard, it is imperative to assess the existing training modules of LHWs and to introduce modules on prevention, early identification, and management of children with disabilities. It is also necessary to employ mass media to spread awareness about persons with disabilities.

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