CERMI Women have called for inclusive policies to eradicate violence against women and girls with disabilities at the inauguration of their International Conference this Friday in Madrid, where experiences on combating violence against women and girls with disabilities have been shared.
The opening of the event was attended by representatives from state institutions and the Third Sector, who expressed their commitment to the fight against violence against women and girls with disabilities, as detailed by the organization.
The event was inaugurated by the representative of Down España and trustee of the CERMI Women Foundation, Blanca San Segundo Madoz, who called for «respect for the inherent dignity of people with Down Syndrome,» without forgetting their «right to autonomy and freedom to make decisions.» «I wish for girls and women with Down Syndrome to live a life free of violence and abuse,» she stated.
Meanwhile, the president of the CERMI Foundation, Concha Díaz Robledo, highlighted the role of the organization in defending the rights of women and girls with disabilities, as well as their caregivers, over their more than ten years of existence. «There is still much to be done, but also much progress has been made. We have contributed to key reforms, such as Article 49 of the Constitution or the criminalization of forced sterilization,» she recalled.
On her part, the Director General of the Youth Institute (INJUVE), Margarita Guerrero Calderón, advocated for «creating safe spaces for the participation of young women with disabilities» and for highlighting female role models that inspire the new generations. «Women and girls with disabilities suffer more violence than those without disabilities. This must be recognized and addressed by institutions,» she emphasized.
Next, the Director of the Women’s Institute, Cristina Hernández, stressed the need to apply an intersectional perspective in all public policies. «Inequalities do not operate in isolation, but overlap and multiply. That’s why we need comprehensive responses that do not leave anyone behind,» she affirmed.
Closing the opening session, the Secretary of State for Social Rights, María Rosa Martínez Rodríguez, emphasized that «20.7% of women with disabilities have experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner» and «12% have done so directly because of their disability.»
### MACRO SURVEY TO DESIGN EFFECTIVE PUBLIC POLICIES
Subsequently, the Vice President of the CERMI Women Foundation and the CEDAW Committee (UN), Ana Peláez Narváez, lamented that «there are more than two and a half million women with disabilities in Spain,» but there is no data on the violence they experience, so she called for an accessible national macro survey to design effective public policies.
In this regard, Peláez proposed five areas of action: prevention, protection, detection, justice, and reparation; while emphasizing the need for accessibility audits, specialized training for judicial personnel, and protection mechanisms that do not depend solely on reporting. «Women and girls with disabilities are also that: women and girls,» she concluded.
The event also featured a panel on the prevention and protection of women and girls with disabilities against violence, both inside and outside the home, where the Director General of Disability Rights, Jesús Martín Blanco, called for the visibility and eradication of the structural violence suffered by women with disabilities.
At the event, Jorge Cardona, former member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, denounced the invisibility of the specific violence suffered by girls with disabilities, particularly in institutional settings, and warned about the seriousness of stereotypes, myths, and harmful practices that perpetuate this violence.
Similarly, Cristina Amich Elías, a lawyer from the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary, highlighted the need to include the disability indicator in judicial records of gender-based and sexual violence. She explained that the Observatory is working on statistical and qualitative analysis of sentences to advance in this area, but warned that without adequate resources and technologies, «requesting more data can generate resistance and frustration.»
FUENTE