CREA & SRI - SR on Disability

46th session of the Human Rights Council
Action Canada for Population and Development
Item 3
Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.

We welcome the new Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Gerard Quinn, to this role, and we look forward to working together towards full implementation of CRPD and achieving disability justice.

We welcome naming intersectionality as crucial to the vision of the mandate and, in particular, using a gender perspective. We appreciate the focus on the rights of women and girls with disabilities and underscore the importance of their political participation, as we observe shrinking of civic space and a rise in anti-gender anti-rights politics. From our dialogues with women with disabilities, they prioritize exercising their sexual and reproductive rights on an equal basis. We encourage the Special Rapporteur to prioritize addressing sexual and gender-based violence which disproportionately affects women with disabilities. This includes understanding independent living as key for addressing violence.

It is essential to embrace the full spectrum of intersectionality including indigenous origin, race, caste, class, and as well as sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics. Sexual autonomy and exercise of rights and freedoms is not possible without addressing structural discrimination. Homotransphobia, anti-rights and ableist approaches, shape the political and socioeconomic landscape, resulting in criminalization and lack of recognition and protection of gender and sexual diversity.

We look forward to the contributions of the Special Rapporteur and all states in this Council in addressing the impact of patriarchal ableism on the rights of women and girls with disabilities.

Thank you.