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Girls and young women with disabilities have the right to make decisions over their own bodies and live free from violence and fear. Yet, on a global level, they are the people least likely to enjoy their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Compelled by this reality, Plan International and the Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have joined forces to ensure young women and girls with disabilities can exercise choice and have control over their bodies. The Let Me Decide and Thrive initiative is supported by in-depth, critical field and desk research and aims to empower girls and young women with disabilities, raise awareness of their plight among stakeholders, and work to secure their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

This research found that the barriers to SRHR confronted by girls and young women with disabilities are overwhelming: infantilisation and disempowerment; forced sterilisation, abortion, and contraception; disproportionate suffering from all forms of violence; substantial barriers in accessing justice; discriminatory attitudes, norms, and behaviours rendering them invisible; and a lack of accessible and appropriate SRHR information and services.

A short overview is presented of the experience of children's participation in inclusive education in Rwanda

Presented at the People at the Centre seminar, Dec 2017

In May 2008, more than 100 States adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of such munitions. It also requires States Parties to destroy their stockpiles, clear remnants, and assist victims.

This brochure provides an overview of the cluster munitions problem, the main provisions of the Convention and the steps required to meet its commitments.

The Guatemala National Disability Study (ENDIS 2016) was undertaken to address a need for up to date reliable data on disability in Guatemala.

Through a population based survey:

* To estimate the national disability prevalence among adults and children in Guatemala, and to provide regional estimates for 5 broad regions

* To disaggregate the prevalence of disability in Guatemala by age, sex, type of functional limitation and socio-economic status

* To explore the impact of disability on: poverty, quality of life, participation, health and opportunities to go to school and to work amongst children and adults respectively

Through a qualitative study:

* To explore cultural, ideological, and social interpretations and responses to disability; provide insight into the disability and poverty relationship; and examine social, political, and economic dimensions operating within this relationship.

"The ABLE TO INCLUDE solution improves the quality of life of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) and similar conditions such as people affected by dementia or any kind of cognitive impairment. To achieve this, the project integrates a set of already-developed technologies to create a context-aware accessibility layer that, by being integrated with existing and future ICT tools, can improve the day-to-day life of people with IDD by understanding their surroundings and helping them to interact with the information society. The project focuses on the most important areas that a person needs to live independently and find fulfilment as an individual: to socialize in the context of the web 2.0, to travel independently and be able to work.

Three key technologies are used as a framework to develop everyday tasks:

Text and content simplifier
A pictogram-to-text, text-to-pictogram and pictogram-pictogram translation tool
Text-to-speech functionalities

These technologies are utilised to create an accessibility layer for people with IDD in everyday tasks within the framework of the information society. The accessibility layer is accessed through an open and free API that foster the introduction of an assistive technologies layer for people with IDD in any software development."

This Knowledge Centre is designed to serve the needs of policymakers, programme implementers and other practitioners dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. It's primary purpose is to encourage and support evidence-based programming to more efficiently and effectively design, implement, monitor and evaluate initiatives to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. To achieve this, the Global Virtual Knowledge Centre offers a ‘one stop’ service to users by making available the leading tools and evidence on what works to address violence against women and girls. It draws on expert recommendations, policy and programme evaluations and assessments, and fundamentally, on practitioners’ experiences from around the world

This report gives interim findings from results of a survey of 109 policymakers in five countries (Indonesia, India, Kenya, Senegal and Colombia), and seeks to shed light on:

• How do policymakers perceive progress on gender equality in their countries?
• What most needs to change in order to improve gender equality?
• What data and evidence do they rely on to make their decisions?
• How confident are they in their understanding of the major challenges affecting girls and women in their countries?

These findings will contribute to debates about data-driven decision making on gender equality, and raise attention to the gaps in accessible, reliable and relevant data and evidence needed to reach the SDGs by 2030.

"The present report has been prepared in response to Economic and Social Council resolution 2015/4, in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Commission for Social Development, at its fifty-fifth session, a report on the implementation of that resolution, including the Chair’s summary of the discussions and the proposals made during the multi-stakeholder panel discussion on disability at the Commission’s fifty-fourth session. The report provides an overview of the inclusion of disability in existing international development frameworks, as well as of the status of persons with disabilities in social and economic development. It notes that, worldwide, persons with disabilities are still at a disadvantage in many aspects of their participation in development processes, mechanisms and institutions. The report presents the information concerning: (a) the review and follow-up mechanisms of relevant international frameworks on disability-inclusive development; (b) the role of the Commission for Social Development in mainstreaming disability in the development agenda; (c) summary of the multi-stakeholder panel discussion on disability held at the fifty-fourth session of the Commission for Social Development; and (d) conclusions and recommendations"

This report contributes to the global discourse on education finance by providing a disability perspective on donor and government investment into inclusive education. The report looks at the benefits of financing disability - inclusive education, the current state of education financing with regard to inclusion, and what needs to change in order for education financing to effectively support the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). Representatives of nine leading bilateral and multilateral education donors were surveyed on their agencies’ efforts towards disability inclusive education: DFAT (Australia), DFID (UK), European Union, GIZ (Germany), Global Partnership for Education, Norad (Norway), UNICEF, USAID (USA), and World Bank