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Topics covered in this disability inclusion evidence digest Jan -Mar 2020 include: 

• COVID-19/Coronavirus
• Mental health and development
• Employment
• Education, children and disability
• Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) 
• Transport
• Displacement

There is a section on Policy and News and a list of recently published (Oct 2020) Helpdesk updates

Key findings and recommendations are reported from an online survey published in April 2020 to gather the experiences of disabled people, their families and carers during the COVID-19 outbreak in Northern Ireland. The survey went live on April 1st 2020 and closed on April 30th 2020.  Over 400 survey responses were received, including over 1300 written statements. 

Key findings are reported in the areas of: social care; physical health; mental health and emotional wellbeing; carers; accessing food and medicine; accessing information; employment and training; social security benefits and community support

The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission launched an inquiry to understand the experiences of disabled defendants and accused people in the criminal justice system. They looked at:

• whether their needs are properly identified
• the types of adjustments being made to accomodate their needs, and
• whether they can fully participate in court processes and understand the charges they face.

Based on their findings, recommendations are made to UK Governments.

The use of video hearings was rapidly expanded in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2020, interim findings from this inquiry were released to help mitigate the risks that this technology poses to disabled people in the criminal justice system.

This publications aims to provide practical and concrete guidelines for making Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) services more inclusive of and accessible to women and young persons with disabilities and for targeting interventions to meet their disability-specific needs.
 
Critical services for all victims and survivors of GBV include health services (e.g. first-line support, sexual assault examination and care, mental health assessment and care), justice and policing services (e.g. assessment and investigation, perpetrator accountability and reparations, safety and protection, justice sector coordination), social services (e.g. crisis counselling; help lines; legal and rights information, advice, and representation; psychosocial support and counselling), and coordination at both the national and local level.

Fundamental SRHR services for women and young persons—with and without disabilities— include comprehensive sexuality education; information, goods, and services for the full range of modern contraceptive methods, including emergency contraception; maternal/newborn healthcare (including antenatal care, skilled attendance at delivery, emergency obstetric care, post-partum care, and newborn care); prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for sexual and reproductive health issues (e.g. sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, syphilis, and HPV, cancers of the reproductive system and breast cancer, and infertility); safe and accessible abortion, where it is not against the law; and post-abortion care to treat complications from unsafe abortion.

While the primary audience of these Guidelines is GBV and SRHR service providers and support staff, these Guidelines are also intended as a valuable resource for all stakeholders—including those in government, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations—involved in designing, developing, implementing, or advocating for GBV or SRHR services for women and young persons with disabilities. 

This report examines the abuses—including pasung—that persons with psychosocial disabilities face in the community, mental hospitals, and various other institutions in Indonesia, including stigma, arbitrary and prolonged detention, involuntary treatment, and physical and sexual violence. It also examines the government’s shortcomings in addressing these problems.

Based on research across the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, Human Rights Watch documented 175 cases of persons with psychosocial disabilities in pasung or who were recently rescued from pasung. 

An easy to read leaflet providing contact details for the various organisations and services that are available to victims of gender-based violence in Zambia

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

"Focusing on the southern parts of the country, this report examines the experiences of persons with mental disabilities in Ghana in the three main environments in which they receive care: the broader community, the country’s three public psychiatric hospitals, and residential prayer camps...Human Rights Watch found that persons with mental disabilities in Ghana often experience a range of human rights abuses in the prayer camps and hospitals that Human Rights Watch researchers visited. These patients are ostensibly sent to these institutions by their family members, police, or their communities for help. Abuses are taking place despite the fact that Ghana has ratified a number of international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which was ratified in July 2012. These abuses include denial of food and medicine, inadequate shelter, involuntary medical treatment, and physical abuse amounting to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment"
The report is available in pdf, easy to read and html formats