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The impact of corruption on the rights of persons with disabilities

ATLAS ALLIANCE
September 2023

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Corruption and discrimination go hand in hand. In 2021, Transparency International and the Equal Rights Trust published a report highlighting how corruption and discrimination reinforce each other, leaving marginalized groups with little room to access public services, exercise their human rights, and live their lives with dignity. In this seminar organized by Norad, CMI/U4 and the Atlas Alliance collectively, researchers and DPO representatives discuss research findings and the situation as lived experience for persons with disabilities.

A Global Agenda for Inclusive Recovery: Ensuring People with Intellectual Disabilities and Families are Included in a Post-COVID World

Inclusion International
June 2021

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This report documents the experience of exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences reveal pre-existing structural inequalities that affected the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and their families before COVID-19, during the pandemic, and beyond, and this report raises up the voices of those most excluded in a time of global crisis and demands an inclusive COVID-19 recovery.

 

This report includes the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities and families across eight different issue areas. Across these themes, we examined how and why people with intellectual disabilities were left out and excluded in pandemic responses, what pre-existing conditions and inequalities contributed to their vulnerability and exclusion, and how future policy structures could begin to address both this immediate and systemic exclusion.

 

Together, these experiences and policy solutions form our global agenda for inclusive COVID-19 recovery, an action plan to ensure that government efforts to ‘build back better’ are inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Disability and Indigeneity: intersectionality of identity from the experience of Indigenous people at a global level

GILROY, John
UTTJEK, Margaretha
LOVERN, Lavonna
WARD, John
2021

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The authors of this paper have protested, fought, written extensively and represent the broader theoretical foundations of Indigenous and disability research by focusing on their standpoint perspectives informed by their ancestral spirits and knowledge. Based on our knowledge, cultures, and advocacy skills, this paper collectively explores and compares the intersections of Indigeneity and disability as an embodied identity in four countries: USA, Canada, Sweden, and Australia. This is accomplished by beginning with a brief synopsis of colonization to provide context and then examine the consequences of Western assimilation practices, including academic support of the Western status quo. The paper will then turn to the impact of both colonization and academic constructs on Indigenous epistemologies and ideas of self in disability dialogues. Finally, the paper will focus on Indigenous concepts of difference to not only advance Western disability discussions, but also as a way for Western dialogue to overcome its predilection to hierarchical binaries.

Disability Inclusion Matters: Including persons with disabilities in the promotion of good governance

SCHMIDT, Bettina
Ed
April 2019

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In the past nine years, the GIZ Sector Project ‘Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities’ has been supporting more than 30 programmes worldwide to include persons with disabilities in our efforts to improve good governance. This publication consolidates lessons learnt and offers guidance and tools around how to address disability in governance programming

Zero Project Report 2019: Independent living and political participation

FEMBEK, Michael
January 2019

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The Zero Project Report 2019 focuses on Article 19 (Living independently and being included in the community) and Article 29 (Participation in political and public life) of the UN CPRD, as well as related topics such as Article 12 (Equal recognition before the law) and Article 13 (Access to justice)

For 2019 the Zero Project selected 66 Innovative Practices and 10 Innovative Policies from 41 countries that positively impact the rights of persons with disabilities in their ability to live more independently and to take part in political life

 

This Report is composed of five main sections, summarizing the annual research, followed by an Annex:

• Executive Summary, including background information on this year’s research topic and the Zero Project methodology

• Innovative Polices and Practices: Fact Sheets and Life Stories

• Description of the Zero Project–Impact Transfer programme

• Description of EU-grant-funded TOPHOUSE projects

• A summary of this Report in easy language

• An Annex listing all Zero Project network members active in 2018–2019

The Zero Project Report is also available on the Zero Project Website in an accessible pdf format.

 

At risk of exclusion from CRPD and SDGs implementation: Inequality and persons with deafblindness. Initial global report on situation and rights of persons with deafblindness

JENSEN, Rune
et al
September 2018

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Representing between 0.2% to 2% of the population, persons with deafblindness are a very diverse yet hidden group and are, overall, more likely to be poor and unemployed, and with lower educational outcomes. Because deafblindness is less well-known and often misunderstood, people struggle to obtain the right support, and are often excluded from both development and disability programmes. This initial global report on the situation of persons with deafblindness seeks to start a dialogue between international disability rights and development stakeholders, and is based on research undertaken by the World Federation of the Deafblind (WFDB) combining the largest population-based analysis of persons with deafblindness conducted to date (disaggregation of 22 population-based surveys from low, middle and high-income countries), an academic literature review, two surveys conducted among members and partners of WFDB and Sense International. Women and men with deafblindness from across the world took part in the Helen Keller World Conference in June 2018, and were consulted to confirm the findings and elaborate on the recommendations for this report.

 

Data and discussion are presented on people with deafblindess and: inequality; poverty; work; education; health; participation on political and public life; and social life. Datasets are included. 

 

Scaling up inclusive approaches for marginalised and vulnerable people. K4D emerging issues report

CARTER, Becky
JOSHI, Anu
REMME, Michelle
July 2018

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This rapid review summarises the evidence on how to scale up inclusive approaches to complex social change. It looks at how to design scalable inclusive change interventions, as well as how to plan and manage the scale-up process. Focusing on interventions with the aim of reaching the most marginalised and transform social norms, it covers programmes aiming to deliver inclusive outcomes for women and girls (with a particular focus on preventing violence against women and girls) and persons with disabilities. To date, many interventions seeking to change harmful gender and disability norms have been implemented as small-scale projects. There are limited experiences of scale-up and fewer evaluations of these experiences. However, there are some documented case studies as well as emerging analysis that draw out lessons learned. From this evidence base, this rapid desk review identifies eight critical issues commonly highlighted as important considerations when scaling up inclusive change interventions:

1. Opportunities for systemic approach, including integrating political and community-level scale-up, and coordinating across multiple sectors and stakeholders

2. Political support for scale-up

3. Strategic choices: balancing reach, speed, cost, quality, equity, and sustainability

4. Catalysing change: tipping points, diffusion effects, and local champions

5. Locally grounded, participatory, and adaptive approaches

6. Long-term approaches with funding models to match

7. Cost-effective and financially feasible scale-up strategies

8. Measuring impact and sustainability.

 

Scale-up pathways are discussed including: horizontal, vertical, functional and organisational.

A number of case studies are given.

Strengthening participation of people with disabilities in leadership roles in developing countries

PRICE, Roz
April 2018

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Evidence on strategies/pathways for strengthening people with disabilities’ leadership in political and public life, at all levels of governance (formal and informal) is reviewed.

Topics discussed concerning participation in political and public life include: UNCRPD; barriers; strategies to support inclusive electoral and political processes; womens empowerment; capacity building and training; the role of disability movements and DPOs; affirmative action and quotas; election observation and increasing the visibility of people with disabilities 

 

K4D helpdesk report

A guide for ensuring equity and inclusion in education

UNESCO
July 2017

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This guide is intended to support countries in embedding inclusion and equity in educational policy. It supports Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education calls for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030. The guide is intended for use primarily by key government education policy-makers working with key stakeholders. The guide provides an assessment framework that can serve to: review how well equity and inclusion currently figure in existing policies; decide which actions are needed to improve policies and their implementation towards equitable and inclusive education systems; and monitor progress. The guide includes evidence that informs the assessment framework, examples of initiatives that are contributing to more inclusive and equitable education systems in different parts of the world, and recommendations for further reading. 

Are national voluntary reviews promoting awareness and inclusion? : Perceptions survey on civil society and stakeholder engagement in voluntary national reviews and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda

COSTA, Naiara
LONG, Graham
LUXTON, Louise
May 2017

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"For the second year, Together 2030 has carried out a survey to collect evidence on stakeholder awareness of, and participation in, national planning and review around the 2030 Agenda. In 2017, the survey was conducted in partnership with the Newcastle University. The survey received 461 responses from a range of stakeholders, including national, regional and global organisations. This perceptions survey asked 20 questions in total (though not all questions were directed to all respondents). It was issued in three languages: English, Spanish and French, and was shared broadly with civil society and stakeholder mailing lists and via social media from March 3 to March 24 2017."

This report addresses two key questions about people’s participation in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development:

  • How extensive is stakeholder awareness of, and participation in, the process of country Voluntary National Reviews which are a central component of the High Level Political Forum
  • How aware and engaged is civil society and stakeholders across the world in national level planning and review of the SDGs?

This report presents statistical, survey-based evidence that helps to address these two questions. 

Normality and disability: intersections among norms, law, and culture

GOGGIN, Gerald
STEELE, Linda
CADWALLADER, Jessica
April 2017

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The central aim of this anthology of papers is to consider the place of law in political, social, scientific and biomedical developments relating to disability and other categories of ‘abnormality’. The papers consider how categories of abnormality relate to the privileged and frequently unmarked position of ‘normality’ and how legal interventions in abnormality relate to existing normative designations in the dominant cultural imaginary. This collection of papers has a range of disciplinary approaches

Paper titles:

  • Fit or fitting in: deciding against normal when reproducing the future
  • Eccentricity: the case for undermining legal categories of disability and normalcy
  • Eugenics and the normal body: the role of visual images and intelligence testing in framing the treatment of people with disabilities in the early twentieth century
  • The construction of access: the eugenic precedent of the Americans with Disabilities Act
  • Disability and torture: exception, epistemology and ‘black sites’
  • Mental capacity and states of exception: revisiting disability law with Giorgio Agamben
  • Not just language: an analysis of discursive constructions of disability in sentencing remarks
  • Policing normalcy: sexual violence against women offenders with disability
  • ‘The government is the cause of the disease and we are stuck with the symptoms’: deinstitutionalisation, mental health advocacy and police shootings in 1990s Victoria
  • Disruptive, dangerous and disturbing: the ‘challenge’ of behaviour in the construction of normalcy and vulnerability
  • Making the abject: problem-solving courts, addiction, mental illness and impairment
  • Cripwashing: the abortion debates at the crossroads of gender and disability in the Spanish media
  • ‘Figurehead’ hate crime cases: developing a framework for understanding and exposing the ‘problem’ with ‘disability’

Continuum 

Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol.31, No.3, pp. 337-340

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1275077

Disability and social justice

MLADENOV, Teodor
2016

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This article explores the significance of disability for social justice, using Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice as a guideline. The article argues that the disability perspective is essential for understanding and promoting social justice, although it is often disregarded by critical thinkers and social activists. The article looks at three prominent strategies for achieving social justice under conditions of capitalism: economically, by decommodifying labour; culturally, by deconstructing self-sufficiency; and politically, by transnationalising democracy. The disability perspective reveals that decommodification of labour requires enhancement of disability support, deconstruction of self-sufficiency requires valorisation of disability-illuminated interdependence, and transnationalisation of democracy requires scrutiny of the transnational production of impairments. The article discusses each of these strategies in theoretical and practical terms by drawing on disability studies and Fraser’s analyses.

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.   

United Nations Global Sustainable Development Report 2016

Uinted Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
July 2016

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This report was prepared to inform the discussions at the high-level political forum (HLPF) on sustainable development in 2016. The theme chosen for the HLPF is "ensuring that no one is left behind". The report builds on GSDR2014 and GSDR2015. The approach is of an assessment of assessments, documenting and describing the landscape of information on specific issues or nexuses of issues. Specifically, the report keeps the ‘science-policy interface’ and ‘SDGs as integrated system’ as main threads. Main topics include: ensuring that no one is left behind and the 2030 Agenda; the infrastructure – inequality – resilience nexus; perspectives of scientists on technology and the SDGs; inclusive institutions for sustainable development; and identification of emerging Issues for sustainable development. An annex addresses persons with disabilities specifically, highlighting their over-representation in the "furthest behind".

Challenges to principled humanitarian action: Perspectives from four countries.

NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL
Handicap International
July 2016

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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to an increased understanding of the perceived and actual challenges humanitarians face in operational contexts as they apply the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. A snapshot is provided of four case studies; Colombia, Nepal, northern Syria and South Sudan. Through a combination of field research, headquarters interviews, desk research, and a webinar, views and observations are presented from the humanitarian community. These observations provide a glimpse into the challenges faced by principled humanitarians. As a result the paper puts forward seven recommendations intended to assist humanitarians and states to sharpen tools and strengthen approaches when implementing principled humanitarian protection and assistance. An addendum to this study provides perspectives from selected members of the donor community. This research was conducted through interviews with state representatives in Geneva, aiming to understand how donors perceive their responsibilities in upholding the humanitarian principles and the Good Humanitarian Donorship Principles. This final chapter highlights challenges faced by states while supporting principled humanitarian action, particularly in conflict zones. On the basis of this research, additional recommendations for both states and humanitarians are proposed to strengthen the adherence to the humanitarian principles

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities (theme: the right of persons with disabilities to participate in decision-making)

DEVANDAS-AGUILAR, Catalina
January 2016

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In the preparation of this study, a questionnaire was sent to Member States, national human rights institutions, agencies of the United Nations system, civil society organizations, and persons with disabilities and their representative organisations. As at 22 December 2015, 144 responses were received. The report covers the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life (right to vote and be elected, right to access public service and right to participate in the conduct of public affairs). The report also covers participation of persons with disabilities in public decision making (importance of effective and meaningful participation, ensuring the participation of representative organisations of persons with disabilities, promoting consultation and the active involvement of persons with disabilities, and key areas for participation). Recommendations are presented.

WORLD ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SURVEY - 2016 Climate Change Resilience: an opportunity for reducing inequalities

United Nations Secretariat, Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
2016

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This survey contributes to the debate on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addressing the specific challenge of building resilience to climate change, the Survey focuses on population groups and communities that are disproportionately affected by climate hazards, whose frequency and intensity are increasing with climate change. It argues that, in the absence of a continuum of policies designed to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of people to climate change, poverty and inequalities will only worsen. To the extent that the differential impact of climate hazards on people and communities is determined largely by the prevalence of multiple inequalities in respect of the access to resources and opportunities, policies aimed at building climate resilience provide an opportunity to address the structural determinants of poverty and inequality in their multiple dimensions.

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2016, Vol. 3 No. 2

2016

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Articles include:

  • Towards a ‘mind map’ for evaluative thinking in Community Based Rehabilitation: reflections and learning
  • Participation of persons with disabilities in political activities in Cameroon
  • The medical inadmissibility of intellectual disability: A Postcolonial reading of Canadian immigration systems
  • Research principles and research experiences: critical reflection on conducting a PhD dissertation on global health and disability
  • Contingencias normalizadoras en la relación Discapacidad–Trabajo en Francia y Uruguay

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