Women Enabled International (WEI) works at the intersection of women's rights and disability rights to advance the rights of women and girls with disabilities around the world. Working in collaboration with women with disabilities rights organizations and women's rights organizations Globally, WEI fosters cooperation across movements to increase international attention to and strengthen human rights standards on issues such as violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to justice, education, legal capacity, and humanitarian emergencies. Our logo is the woman symbol ♀ with the letters 'WE' inside the circle.
Women Enabled International participates in the
12th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
11-13 June 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted by the General Assembly on 13 December 2006 and came into force on 3 May 2008. Article 40 of the Convention stipulates that “The States Parties shall meet regularly in a Conference of States Parties in order to consider any matter with regard to the implementation of the present Convention.” Since 2008, ten sessions of the Conference of States Parties have been held at United Nations Headquarters, New York.
The 12th session's thematic focus is on ensuring inclusion of persons with disabilities in a changing world through the implementation of the CRPD.
Learn about and RSVP for our side panel events.
Women and Young Persons with Disabilities: Guidelines for Providing Rights-Based and Gender-Responsive Services to Address Gender-Based Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
WEI and the United Nations Population Fund announce this new publication, funded by the Government of Spain and officially launched on November 28, 2018. These guidelines aim to provide practical and concrete guidelines for making GBV and SRHR services more inclusive of and accessible to women and young persons with disabilities and for targeting interventions to meet their disability-specific needs. Available in Spanish, English, French, and Easy Read Formats.
WEI accountABILITY toolkit
WEI presents this free toolkit to empower organizations that advocate for the rights of women with disabilities and assist them in using available U.N. human rights mechanisms. Available in English and Spanish.
Learn more/download free toolkit
WEI Fact Sheets
An overview of frequent violations of the Right to Education, Access to Justice, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and of the right to be free from Gender-Based Violence for women and girls with disabilities, and examples of what governments must do to realize these rights. Formats include accessible English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese,
and Easy Read PDFs.
WEI's Interactive Map of Global Advocates
A groundbreaking interactive map of organizations that advocate for the rights of women and girls with disabilities. Released on International Women's Day in 2016, it has grown to include 664 organizations.
Find organizations in most countries worldwide working for the rights of disabled women and girls and aligned women’s rights organizations, disability rights organizations, academic institutions and more!
Updated March 2019
May 31, 2019 WEI participates in Women Deliver 2019 Global Conference. 3-6 June 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. The world’s largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women. Women Deliver is a leading global advocate that champions gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women.
May 17, 2019 WEI Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Health: Medical Education and Health Workforce Strengthening. This submission is intended to inform the Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health's forthcoming report to the U.N. General Assembly. The submission outlines the impact of inadequate health worker training on the rights of women and girls with disabilities, highlights good practices, and suggests indicators to assess and monitor progress towards improving health worker education.
Read more at Our Work: Health, Including Sexual and Reproductive Health
May 17, 2019 Women with Disabilities Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women: Mistreatment and Violence in Reproductive Health Care, including Facility-Based Childbirth. This submission outlines the causes, forms, and consequences of violence against women and girls with disabilities in reproductive health care settings. It highlights that women and girls with disabilities are subjected to forced reproductive health interventions, encounter abuse in maternity care, and are more often stripped of parental rights due to discrimination, lack of provider training, and the inaccessibility of facilities and information.
April 15, 2019 WEI Submission on Older Women with Disabilities to the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This submission focuses on human rights issues faced by older women with disabilities, including gender-based violence, institutionalization, gaps in social protection, and barriers to accessing health care. This submission provides data on these issues, an analysis of existing standards, and recommendations to States on how to ensure the rights of older women with disabilities.
Feb. 15, 2019 WEI Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions: Report on the use of lethal force by law enforcement officials on persons with psychosocial, intellectual or developmental disabilities.
This submission, which seeks to inform the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions's next report, highlights how gender and disability-related discrimination and stereotypes can lead to extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary killings of women with disabilities—particularly intellectual, psychosocial, or developmental disabilities—by law enforcement or in state-run institutions.
Read more at Our Work: Violence Against Women
February 14, 2019 WEI and Disability Rights International Submission to the CEDAW Committee for its half-day of general discussion on trafficking in the context of migration. Drawing on field research by DRI and other available research, this submission enumerates the risks facing women and girls with disabilities to all forms of trafficking. It highlights barriers that increase risk, enumerates States’ duties to address them, summarizes relevant international legal standards, and offers suggestions for inclusion in CEDAW’s forthcoming General Recommendation.
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