A/67/227 C. Manifestations of violence against women and girls with disabilities 31. Violence against women with disabilities occurs in various spheres, including in the home, the community, as violence that is perpetrated and/or condoned by the State and as violence against women in the transnational sphere. The forms of violence to which women with disabilities are subjected can be of a physical, psychological, sexual or financial nature and include neglect, social isolation, entrapment, degradation, detention, denial of health care, forced sterilization and psychiatric treatment. Women with disabilities are twice as likely to experience domestic violence as non-disabled women, and are likely to experience abuse over a longer period of time and to suffer more severe injuries as a result of the violence. 16 32. Women with disabilities are at high risk of violence based on social stereotypes and biases that attempt to dehumanize or infantilize, exclude or isolate them, and target them for sexual and other forms of violence. Violence also has the consequence of contributing to the incidence of disability among women. 33. Women with disabilities may be subjected to situations of physical discomfort or embarrassment because their right to privacy is undervalued or not valued at all. Home assistants, family members or others who provide assistance may inflict violence through purposeful neglect (for example, leaving a woman who is in bed or who uses a wheelchair with no assistance for long periods in order to “punish” or manipulate her). Others may confine a woman with disabilities to her home or isolate her from other human contact. Mobility aids, communication equipment or medications may be withheld, causing physical injury or mental and emotional suffering. 34. In domestic violence situations, women with disabilities may fear reporting or leaving an abuser because of emotional, financial or physical dependence; they may also fear losing custody of their children. Barriers to accessing justice further complicate their ability to seek redress and protection, thereby allowing for the continuation of the abuse. 35. Women with disabilities experience rape and sexual abuse at home, at work, at school or on the street (see A/61/122/Add.1 and Corr.1). Others experience rape and sexual abuse within institutions, both state and non-state. 36. Women with disabilities are often treated as if they have no control, or should have no control, over their sexual and reproductive choices. They may be forcibly sterilized or forced to terminate wanted pregnancies — under the paternalistic guise of “for their own good”. This is done sometimes with the sanction of partners, parents, institutions or guardians. There is a long history of socially and even legally sanctioned forced and non-consensual sterilization of women with disabilities. Despite legal prohibitions in some countries, involuntary sterilization is used to restrict the fertility of some persons with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual disabilities. 17 Sterilization also has been used as a technique for menstrual management. __________________ 16 17 12-45120 Women With Disabilities Australia, “Valuing South Australia’s women: towards a women's safety strategy for South Australia”, discussion paper prepared for the government of South Australia, 2004. Owen Dyer, “Gynaecologist is struck off for sterilising women without their consent”, British Medical Journal, vol. 325 (2002); Laurent Servais, “Sexual health care in persons with 9