Read the report here.

The right to make decisions is an important human right for everyone, but it is particularly important for women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities. Women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities are often denied the right to make their own decisions—especially decisions about their bodies, relationships, and having children.

My Body, (but not) My Choice: Legal Capacity Violations Against Women with Intellectual or Psychosocial Disabilities and Recommendations for Action is an easy-to-understand report that is based on a two-year, global research project about the right of women with intellectual disabilities and women with psychosocial disabilities to make decisions about their bodies, relationships, and having children.

For this project, WEI and its eight partner organizations spoke with over 100 women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities through focus groups or interviews in five different countries.

This report talks about the many things that we learned in this project, including:

• How many women who do not get to make their own decisions about their bodies, relationships, and having children.
  • This is especially true for women living in institutions.
• How women usually do not get enough information to make their own decisions about their bodies, relationships, and having children.

This report also includes 6 recommendations for how we can make things better for women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities.

This report was developed by the project’s four self-advocate researchers in an inclusive process, inspired by Inclusion International’s and Down Syndrome International’s Listen Include Respect Guidelines.

Read the report here. My Body, (but not) My Choice: Legal Capacity Violations Against Women with Intellectual or Psychosocial Disabilities and Recommendations for Action