- Vacancy Announcement: Equal Justice Works FellowshipWomen Enabled International (WEI) is now accepting expressions of interest from U.S.-based law students in their final year of school or recent law school graduates to partner in developing a proposal for a two-year Equal Justice Works (EJW) Design-Your-Own Fellowship that, if selected by EJW, would begin September 2022. Continue reading Vacancy Announcement: Equal Justice Works Fellowship
- Open letter to the government of France and UN WomenSeveral organizations including Women Enabled International have co-authored a letter expressing concerns on the lack of accessibility and inclusion during the recent Generation Equality Forum in Paris. Continue reading Open letter to the government of France and UN Women
- Submission to the CEDAW Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Women and GirlsThis submission presents an overview of the main barriers faced by indigenous women and marginalized genders with disabilities to fulfil their human rights at the intersection of gender and disability Continue reading Submission to the CEDAW Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Women and Girls
- New Publications — Guaranteeing Rights at the Intersection of Gender and Disability in the COVID-19 Response
Five new resources to guide pandemic response and recovery and seek to set a new standard for crisis preparation that ensures human rights and inclusion at the intersection of gender and disability. Continue reading New Publications — Guaranteeing Rights at the Intersection of Gender and Disability in the COVID-19 Response - Joint submission to OHCHR on promoting and protecting the human rights of women and girls with disabilities in conflict and post-conflict situationsWEI joined forces with Human Rights Watch, Humanity and Inclusion, International Disability Alliance, and Women’s Refugee Commission to submit this short report on women and girls with disabilities in conflict and post-conflict situations to the U.N. Office of the High Commission for Human Rights. This short report will help promote an intersectional approach to the U.N. Human Rights Council’s forthcoming discussions on the 20th anniversary of a groundbreaking Security Council resolution, focusing on the role of women in ensuring peace and security. Continue reading Joint submission to OHCHR on promoting and protecting the human rights of women and girls with disabilities in conflict and post-conflict situations
- Submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Preparation of a General Comment on Article 27 of the CRPD (the right to work and employment) This submission highlights how discrimination at the intersection of gender and disability leads to significant pay gaps, unemployment, harassment in the workplace, and other issues that disproportionately impact women and gender non-conforming persons with disabilities as related to work and employment, including as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading Submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Preparation of a General Comment on Article 27 of the CRPD (the right to work and employment)
- Disabled Women in Africa and Women Enabled International: Joint Submission to the Human Rights Committee for its Development of Malawi’s List of Issues Prior to Reporting This submission, done in partnership with Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA), highlights human rights abuses against women and girls in Malawi, including in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading Disabled Women in Africa and Women Enabled International: Joint Submission to the Human Rights Committee for its Development of Malawi’s List of Issues Prior to Reporting
- Feminists with Disabilities Joint Submission to the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls: Women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights in situations of crisis This submission, produced in partnership between Women Enabled International (WEI), My Life My Choice (U.K.), CIMUNIDIS (Chile), Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Centre (India), Women with Disabilities India Network, HYPE Sri Lan, ka, and Disabled Women in Africa (Malawi), highlights how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women, girls, and gender non-conforming persons with disabilities. Continue reading Feminists with Disabilities Joint Submission to the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls: Women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights in situations of crisis
- New Fact Sheet Available: Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Conflict and Humanitarian EmergenciesWomen, girls, and gender non-conforming people with disabilities are disproportionally impacted by conflict and humanitarian emergencies due to multiple forms of discrimination that heighten exclusion and risks. Despite the important perspective they can bring to addressing these challenges, women with disabilities are routinely excluded from peacebuilding and recovery processes. Failure to engage women with disabilities in these efforts perpetuates exclusion, discrimination, and violations of their human rights. Women Enabled International is deeply concerned by this issue. Please read our new Fact Sheet, which offers guidelines for governments on what they must do to realize the rights of women and girls with disabilities in conflict situations. Continue reading New Fact Sheet Available: Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Conflict and Humanitarian Emergencies
- Statement on Abortion Access in PolandWomen Enabled International is deeply concerned about the decision by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling unconstitutional Poland’s law permitting abortion on grounds of “a severe and irreversible fetal defect or incurable illness that threatens the fetus’s life.” This decision effectively bans access to safe and legal abortion for women—including women with disabilities—in Poland, violating the fundamental human rights of Poland’s women. Continue reading Statement on Abortion Access in Poland
- The loss of a true feminist iconWomen Enabled International deeply mourns the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a true feminist icon, brilliant thinker and advocate for the rights of women worldwide. —Stephanie Ortoleva Continue reading The loss of a true feminist icon
- WEI Comments on the USAID 2020 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy DraftThe U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has drafted the 2020 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy and has solicited comments from organizations including WEI before it is finalized. Although USAID has indicated that this policy is undergoing review and revision, to date a revised policy has not been issued to this more than twenty-three year old policy. According to USAID, “the Policy will affirm USAID’s vision of a prosperous and peaceful world in which women and girls, and men and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for Continue reading WEI Comments on the USAID 2020 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy Draft
- WEI Submission on Domestic Violence and COVID-19 at the Intersection of Gender and Disability to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against WomenAlongside the global COVID-19 pandemic, there is an increased risk of domestic violence for women, girls, non-binary, trans, and gender non-conforming persons with disabilities. WEI reported information from its own research and that of organizations around the world to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women about this “hidden pandemic” of domestic violence. Continue reading WEI Submission on Domestic Violence and COVID-19 at the Intersection of Gender and Disability to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women
- Response to U.N. Special Procedures Questionnaire on COVID-19 and Human RightsWEI, as a member of the Nairobi Principles Working Group, submitted information to several U.N. human rights experts on the situation of rights related to gender, disability, and sexuality during the COVID-19 crisis. This information will be used to inform the global human rights response to this pandemic. Continue reading Response to U.N. Special Procedures Questionnaire on COVID-19 and Human Rights
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