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                                            Inclusive Generation Equality Collective

                  Platform for a Gender- and Disability-Inclusive and Transformative
                                    Generation Equality Forums Process and Outcome

Women with disabilities are 1 in 5 women around the world. As such, our voices and perspectives are invaluable to all conversations related to gender equality and women’s rights. There is, however, an increasing risk that feminists with disabilities  in all of our diversity—including women, girls, and gender non-conforming persons with disabilities, among others—will be largely left out of one of the most significant ongoing global conversations on gender equality: the Generation Equality Forums.

All of the major issues identified by the Generation Equality Forums and covered by the Action Coalitions—gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, economic justice and rights, climate action, technology, and feminists movements and leadership--disproportionately impact us. We refuse to be left behind as States, civil society, UN agencies, private sector actors, funders, and international organizations create a Blueprint that will impact our future.  

We, the Inclusive Generation Equality Collective, as well as 282 endorsing organizations and individuals, issue this platform to call for a Generation Equality Forums process and outcomes that ensure transformative change for all feminists, including those with disabilities.

Our priorities are as follows:

Priority #1: Actions to eliminate Gender-Based Violence (GBV) must address specific forms of violence experienced by feminists with disabilities and promote the accessibility of justice and support services..

Feminists with disabilities are at least two to three times more likely than women without disabilities to experience gender-based violence in various spheres. This alarming situation is the result of the intersectional discrimination we experience, which imposes social, legal, physical, and mental barriers to preventing, responding to and reporting violence. Feminists with disabilities not only experience the same forms of gender-based violence as any other woman (intimate partner violence, family violence, as well as emotional, physical, sexual, financial, and psychological violence), but also other disability-related forms of violence, such as that committed by caregivers or other residents in institutions. Feminists with disabilities also experience physical, information, and communications barriers to accessing justice and gender-based violence support services. And when we do access justice, we encounter stereotypes about our sexuality and our ability to accurately report on violence committed against us, which make it so that officials do not believe us. During periods of social isolation, such as that imposed by COVID-19, our risk of violence and the barriers to accessing justice and support services have only increased. In spite of that, we are all too often invisible in laws, policies and research about gender-based violence.

With these issues in mind, we call on leaders and participants in the Generation Equality Forums process to advocate for:

• Disability inclusive laws, policies, and programs to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, which specifically include reference to disability in their text and are reflective of the lived experiences of feminists with disabilities, address our unique risk factors including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, consider the specific barriers we face in leaving violent situations and accessing help, and call for the collection of data on gender-based violence disaggregated by disability and other factors.
• Policies and programs to eliminate harmful gender and disability stereotypes, as well as social and cultural practices that increase the risk of gender-based violence.
• Policies and protocols to guarantee the right of accessible justice for women victims/survivors of gender-based violence, ensuring an effective investigation and prosecution of this crime, adequate training for police and judiciary staff on disability and gender issues, and the provision of the necessary supports so that victims/survivors can report the crime and be believed.
• Laws and policies to ensure accessible protection for victims/survivors of gender-based violence, ensuring coordinated services that guarantee disability accessibility and access without discrimination to shelters, psychosocial services, and other gender-based violence support services.
• Promote campaigns in accessible formats to raise awareness about measures to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, such as victim support services. Such services shall be accessible.

Priority #2: Actions to ensure Economic Justice and Rights must transform the world of work, address the gender and disability pay gap, and recognize and value care work done by and for feminists with disabilities.

Feminists with disabilities experience substantial barriers to participating in economic life on an equal basis with others, stemming from both gender and disability discrimination that alter perceptions of our value to society from the time we are in primary school. As such, feminists with disabilities experience lower rates of education and therefore also lower rates of formal and secure employment. We also experience the same types of inequalities in the workplace as both women and persons with disabilities, ranging from experience with the “glass ceiling” to denial of reasonable accommodations. For us, the gender pay gap is further exacerbated by our disabilities, meaning that those of us who do have access to work receive substantially lower pay than men with disabilities and nondisabled women. We also both engage in care work and benefit from care work, which helps many of us to be able to live independently and be included in our communities. As such, we prioritize a call for care jobs that provide decent lives to all who engage in them, as well as the recognition, reduction, and redistribution of unpaid care work.

With these issues in mind, we call on leaders and participants in the Generation Equality Forums process to advocate for:

• A transformative approach to work that treats workers as whole persons, promotes opportunities for decent work for all including with reasonable accommodations, and ensures that work is valued by its benefits to society, not to shareholders.
• Polices and programs to address the intersectinoal gender pay gap that address the lived experiences of feminists in all of their diversity, including the diversity of factors beyond gender that may contribute to unequal pay for work of equal value.
• Recognition of the value of care work and ensure that those engaged in that work—including those with disabilities and those supporting persons with disabilities—can live decent lives, with compensation that fully recognizes the value their work provides to society.

Priority #3: Actions on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Bodily Autonomy must tackle stigma, discrimination, and stereotypes at the intersection of gender and disability and address accessibility barriers to SRH information, goods, and services.

Feminists with disabilities are just as likely to be sexually active as our peers without disabilities, despite inaccurate stereotypical views to the contrary. Accordingly, we have the same sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs as nondisabled persons. Due to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination on the basis of gender and disability, however, feminists with disabilities face unique and pervasive barriers to full realization of their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

These include accessibility barriers, including the physical accessibility of physical buildings, equipment, and transportation; the financial accessibility of SRH goods and services; whether information on SRH, including sexuality education, is available in Easy Read, Braille, or other accessible formats; and whether healthcare providers can communicate with us in sign language or plain language. These also include attitudinal barriers to SRHR, including negative perceptions of and stereotypes about our sexuality and ability to be parents from society at large and healthcare providers in particular, which can lead healthcare providers to not provide us with needed SRH care—such as contraception or reproductive cancer screenings—or to abusive treatment when we demand that care. Finally, many of us are deprived of legal capacity or face assumptions that we cannot make decisions for ourselves, which in the context of SRH means that we may be forcibly subjected to sterilization, abortion, or contraception, or that our wishes and priorities may otherwise be overlooked.

With these issues in mind, we call on leaders and participants in the Generation Equality Forums process to advocate for:

• The repeal of guardianship laws and others laws or practices that allow substituted decision-making in healthcare, instead promoting measures to ensure autonomy and supported decision-making for all persons in these contexts.
• Programs to transform the SRH care system to ensure all facets of accessibility (physical, informational, communications, and financial), so that feminists with disabilities can access SRH information, goods, and services on an equal basis with others and in line with their rights.
• Programs to raise awareness among the public about the sexuality of feminists with disabilities, their ability to be good parents, their need for SRH information, goods, and services, and their diversity and contributions to society.
• Programs to train SRH providers on the rights and needs of feminists with disabilities, including how to provide appropriate and respectful care.

Priority #4: Ensure that actions to promote Feminist Action for Climate Justice include those most likely to be impacted by climate change, including feminists with disabilities.

As highlighted in a 2020 study from OHCHR, climate change is likely to have a disproportionate impact on persons with disabilities and their rights to life, health, food, water and sanitation, housing, decent work, and development. Our disabilities compounded with gender, disability, and other factors that serve to further marginalize us, decrease our ability to access to emergency services, and place us at higher risk of poverty, injury, and death. As such, feminist with disabilities need to have a seat at the table in discussions on climate justice, to ensure a tailored approach that meets our specific needs.

With these issues in mind, we call on leaders and participants in the Generation Equality Forums process to advocate for:

• A more ambitious approach to mitigate the effects of climate change, noting that the most marginalized – including feminists with disabilities – are the most likely to face the consequences of disasters and other issues caused by climate change.
• An approach to climate action that meaningfully and effectively includes feminists in all their diversity, including feminists with disabilities and other who will be most impacted by climate change, at all stages.
• Ensure that financing for climate action targets feminists in all of their diversity, with specific funding for those most marginalized and likely toe experience the greatest impacts from climate change.

Priority #5: Ensure that actinos to ensure Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality recognize intersectionality and promote accessibility and inclusivity.

Feminists with disabilities encounter myriad barriers to accessing technology and the fruits of innovation which increasingly dictate the ability of all persons to participate in the modern world. Issues like poverty, lack of infrastructure in rural and remote areas, the deprioritization of STEM education for women and girls, and disability-related accessibility barriers to technology mean that feminists with disabilities often lack meaningful access to the tools they need to be equal participants in economic, community, and public life. The COVID-19 crisis has brought these barriers to the fore, as women and young persons with disabilities who lack access to personal computers, internet, or accessible technology fall behind in virtual education and virtual in workplaces. At the same time, technology and innovation can have life-changing impacts on feminists with disabilities, creating opportunities for our further integration into economic, community, and public life – if designed and distributed with gender and disability intersections in mind.
 
With these issues in mind, we call on leaders and participants in the Generation Equality Forums process to advocate for:
• An intersectional approach to technology and innovation that recognizes the barriers that feminists in all of their diversity, including those with disabilities, have in ensuring equality of access and use and seeks to overcome those barriers through an intersectional framework.  
• An emphasis on the disability-related accessibility and equitable distribution of technology, including technology related to public and political participation and social media, and the fruits of innovation, with a particular emphasis on historically marginalized groups such as feminists with disabilities.  
• Inclusion of feminists with disabilities in STEM education and STEM fields and in the design, implementation, and evaluation of technology and innovation projects and programs worldwide.  

Priority #6: Ensure that actions to promote Feminist Movements and Leadership recognize that States, funders, and feminist movements themselves must do more to recognize and include feminists in all of their diversity.

Feminists with disabilities have frequently been invisible in the feminist movement. Feminism has not mainstreamed disability due to the lack of understanding of the lived experiences and demands of persons with disabilities, as well as the lack of accessibility of feminist spaces and a historical lack of recognition of intersectionality. Feminist with disabilities aslo face significant barrers to inclusion and personal and economic autonomy, which makes the prevalence of women with disabilities in leadership positions and decision-making scarce. All of the above prevents more feminists with disabilities from becoming leaders and advocates, and the lack of data on the matter is a barrier to actions to promote greater participation of feminists with disabilities in the feminist movements and leadership. Dialogue between the feminist and disability movements is crucial for the collective construction of an inclusive and diverse feminist movement that promotes and includes leaders with disabilities.  

With these issues in mind, we call on leaders and participants in the Generation Equality Forums process to advocate for:

• A constructive dialogue between the feminist movement and the movement of people with disabilities, fostering the exchange of knowledge and experiences and taking the demands of feminists with disabilities into account.
• Commitments to the physical, sensory, psychological, and cognitive accessibility of the feminist movement, eliminating access and communication barriers that hinder the participation of women with disabilities.
• Empowerment and self-representation of feminists with disabilities through training, activities that enable encounters between peers with and without disabilities, practices based on a culture of respect and equality; and actions that raise awareness of feminist guidelines and the importance of women's participation in decision-making.
• Collection of disaggregated data on participation and leadership that includes sex and type of disability and is analyzed accordingly.
• A paradigm shift to eliminate unequal power relations and gender and disability stereotypes, with mechanisms to involve feminists with disabilities in advocacy, guaranteeing their participation in the design and implementation of the actions.

Priority #7: Ensure the participation of feminists with disabilities in the Generation Equality Forums moving forward.  

As outlined above, feminists with disabilities have a significant stake in the outcome of the Generation Equality Forums process. Despite this stake and the fact that we constitute a significant proportion of all women, organizations prioritizing the intersection fo gender and disability have a leadership role in the Generation Equality Forums on only one of these topics: the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership. Despite seeking leadership roles in other part of the process, including the Civil Society Advisory Group, feminists with disabilities have been denied. And we have repeatedly had to fight for accessible information about the process and accessible spaces where Generation Equality Forums conversations are taking place.

With these issues in mind, we call on leaders and participants in the Generation Equality Forums process to advocate for:
• A Generation Equality Forums process that is a model of accessibility, including physical, communications, information, and language accessibility, among other processes.
• Frequent and ongoing conversations between disabled feminists and the organizers of the Generation Equality Forums, about how to ensure a more accessible process moving forward.
• Frequent and ongoing conversations between disabled feminists and Action Coalition leaders, to ensure that the outcomes of the Generation Equality Process are inclusive of our rights and priorities.

This Platform was developed by the Inclusive Generation Equality Collective, a group of feminists with disabilities and organizations advocating for rights and justice at the intersection of gender and disability. For more information about this Collective, please contact a.carvalho@womenenabled.org.