Contents 1. WWDA Position on Sexual and Reproductive Rights 4 2. Introduction 6 3. The Evidence 7 4. International Human Rights Obligations: Sexual and Reproductive Rights 13 5. International Human Rights Compliance: Sexual and Reproductive Rights 25 6. Recommendations: Sexual and Reproductive Rights 38 7. Speaking Out and Accessing Support 40 8. Endnotes 41 1 WWDA Position on Sexual and Reproductive Rights WWDA believes women and girls with disability have the right to make free and informed choices about their bodies, sexual health, reproductive health, intimate and emotional relationships, and parenting. WWDA believes that recognising sexual and reproductive rights encompasses the basic right of all couples and individuals to found and maintain a family, including the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have access to the information and means to do so. WWDA believes women and girls with disability have the right to sexual pleasure, expression, association, equity, privacy, freedom, autonomy and self-determination. WWDA believes that forced sterilisation, forced abortion, and forced contraception constitute egregious forms of sexual violence against women and girls with disability and are a violation of the right to freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. WWDA believes the denial of sexual and reproductive rights for and girls with disability, especially sterilisation and the forced removal of children on the basis of a mother’s disability, constitute egregious violations of fundamental human rights. WWDA is unequivocal in its position of actively opposing sterilisation of any child, with and without disability
Contents 1. WWDA Position on Sexual and Reproductive Rights 4 2. Introduction 6 3. The Evidence 7 4. International Human Rights Obligations: Sexual and Reproductive Rights 13 5. International Human Rights Compliance: Sexual and Reproductive Rights 25 6. Recommendations: Sexual and Reproductive Rights 38 7. Speaking Out and Accessing Support 40 8. Endnotes 41 1 WWDA Position on Sexual and Reproductive Rights WWDA believes women and girls with disability have the right to make free and informed choices about their bodies, sexual health, reproductive health, intimate and emotional relationships, and parenting. WWDA believes that recognising sexual and reproductive rights encompasses the basic right of all couples and individuals to found and maintain a family, including the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have access to the information and means to do so. WWDA believes women and girls with disability have the right to sexual pleasure, expression, association, equity, privacy, freedom, autonomy and self-determination. WWDA believes that forced sterilisation, forced abortion, and forced contraception constitute egregious forms of sexual violence against women and girls with disability and are a violation of the right to freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. WWDA believes the denial of sexual and reproductive rights for and girls with disability, especially sterilisation and the forced removal of children on the basis of a mother’s disability, constitute egregious violations of fundamental human rights. WWDA is unequivocal in its position of actively opposing sterilisation of any child, with and without disability
WomenWithDisabilitiesAustralia.docx