Resources search

This easy-to-read summary uses simple language and clear illustrations to succinctly present the key principles of the full report: “Treated worse than animals: abuses against women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities in institutions in India”. The report found that female patients with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities at institutions in India experience widespread neglect and abuses of their rights

Note: Full report, summary and video also available

The Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific provides the Asian and Pacific region, and the world, with the first set of regionally agreed disability-inclusive development goals. The Incheon Strategy goals cover a range of development areas from poverty reduction and employment to political participation, accessibility, social protection, education, gender equality, disaster risk reduction, data collection, CRPD ratification and international cooperation.

To ensure that the 10 goals are successfully met, the Strategy identifies 27 targets as well as 62 related indicators for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the 10 goals. These targets and indicators are essential for developing practical implementation strategies, ensuring success and identifying areas where significant challenges remain. Goal 8 of the Incheon Strategy accords particular priority to data collection, calling for improvement of the reliability and comparability of disability data across countries in the region. Member States, in target 8B, have specifically committed to establishing a baseline with reliable statistics by the midpoint of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities in 2017, as a source of tracking progress towards the achievement of the Incheon Goals.

The ESCAP Guide on Disability Indicators for the Incheon Strategy aims to guide data collection and generation by ESCAP member States through providing them with relevant methodologies and tools to construct and use the 62 indicators of the Incheon Strategy, in order to monitor the achievement of the 10 disability-inclusive development goals.

This final short report summary encompasses the main findings of the Daphne III project “Access to Specialised Victim Support Services for Women with Disabilities who have experienced Violence.” The project aimed to assess the range of different experiences of violence against disabled women and their use of support structures. In addition specialised victim support services were interviewed about their experiences and capabilities in terms of counselling and accommodating disabled women. The project focused on three components: (1) Assessing the legal and policy framework (2) Generating extensive empirical data by surveying disabled or Deaf women (focus group discussions, in-depth-interviews) and service providers (online survey, interviews with staff members) and (3) Developing good practice examples and recommendations. For each component national reports and an associated comparative report was prepared, identifying the most prominent issues including the commonalities and differences between the four countries issues.

“The study investigated HIV testing prevalence and factors associated with the utilization of voluntary HIV counselling and testing (VCT) services among individuals with disabilities in Addis Ababa. The analysis was based on a survey of 209 men and 203 women with disabilities, aged 15–49, who had ever heard about HIV and AIDS in four sub-cities in Addis Ababa. HIV testing prevalence was 53.2%, with no significant difference between males and females. Comprehensive HIV knowledge, living with spouse, and religious affiliations positively predicted utilization of VCT services among participants. Living with both parents and having physical or mental/intellectual disabilities were negative predictors of VCT services utilization. More research on the predictors of utilization of VCT services by gender and urban/rural divides are needed among people with disabilities”

AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV, Vol 26, Issue 10

This paper argues that gender integration and women’s empowerment need to be approached within the paradigm shift in disaster risk reduction (DRR) thinking internationally, as embodied by the development of the post-2015 Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction. The paper outlines the background to the previous international framework, the Hyogo Framework for Action, and why women's integration should be an important priority for any further agreement. The paper then discusses the role and importance of women in DRR, and analyses lessons learned from the Hyogo Framework's implementation. Finally, the authors conclude by presenting a 'way forward' for increasing the inclusion of women in DRR, based on empowerment, data desegregation and local, national and international frameworks

The Nairobi declaration calls for a more inclusive post-2015 agenda with a specific demand that development agenda targets and indicators explicitly include persons with disabilities. This document succinctly summarises the issues faced by persons with disabilities in Africa and their specific demands to enable greater inclusion in the post-2015 development agenda. It was adopted by persons with disabilities from Africa, representatives of national, sub-regional and Pan-African disabled people’s organisations, on the 8th of March during the Nairobi conference “Inclusive post 2015 development agenda and UN CRPD in Africa”, organised by the International Disability Alliance in partnership with the International Disability and Development Consortium, UNICEF and the UN Partnership to promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

“Inclusive post 2015 development agenda and UN CRPD in Africa”

8 March 2014

Nairobi, Kenya

This GADN position paper calls on world leaders committed to promoting gender equality to prioritise the inclusion of a strong standalone goal on gender equality and women’s rights in the forthcoming negotiations on the post-2015 framework”, alongside mainstreaming to ensure that gender equality is embedded across the framework. It identifies the need for targets that are transformative to promote changes in the power and choices women have over their own lives, focusing on five main areas: violence against women and girls; economic empowerment; political participation and influence in decision making; sexual and reproductive health and rights; and education 

This presentation is a “tool for raising awareness among community workers, volunteers and displaced people about increasing access and inclusion for persons with disabilities in refugee and displacement contexts. It can be used by staff of organisations working with refugees and displaced persons, as well as community leaders and disability associations conducting sensitisation with the wider refugee community. The tool illustrates common barriers experienced by persons with disabilities in displacement contexts, as well as positive practices or approaches to promote inclusion. Suggested questions provide a guide for facilitators of the discussion, but should be adapted according to the context and audience. The tool is intended to facilitate conversation about concerns and ideas for change at field levels, but is not a comprehensive catalogue of either barriers or solutions in these contexts”

This online toolkit is intended to help water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) and associated practitioners better recognise the risks of violence linked to WASH and to encourage WASH practitioners to recognise their capacity to make WASH safer and more effective. It has been developed in response to an acknowledgement that although the lack of access to WASH is not the root cause of violence, it can lead to increased vulnerabilities to violence of varying forms.

The key toolkit documents are the four briefing notes and the associated checklists, however other materials in the toolsets, such as case studies, checklists, videos, training scenarios etc., are available and may be drawn on as required. This toolkit has been developed for use by WASH practitioners but will also be useful for gender based violence (GBV), gender, protection, health and education specialists working for organisations and governments that are providing access to these essential services, to help them better identify and acknowledge these risks and contribute to their reduction in practical ways.

Note: Documents in the toolkit can be opened or downloaded from the online links. The entire toolkit (except the videos) can be downloaded from the download options page. Once downloaded, hyperlinks will operate if the folders and documents remain in their existing positions.