A/67/227 perspective. Disability, it is argued, is a cultural interpretation of human variation rather than an inherent inferiority, pathology to cure, or an undesirable trait to eliminate. 2 20. Women with disabilities experience both the stereotypical attitudes towards women and towards persons with disabilities. Both the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognize the role of stereotypes in the denial of human rights towards women with disabilities. The impact of stereotypical views of women with disabilities includes rolelessness, the absence of sanctioned social roles and/or institutional means to achieve these roles and can cultivate a psychological sense of invisibility, self-estrangement, and/or powerlessness. 3 21. Social sanctions relating to poverty, race/ethnicity, religion, language and other identity status or life experiences can further increase the risk of group or individual violence for women with disabilities. 4 Women with disabilities who also belong to (or are perceived as belonging to) disfavoured or minority groups may face compounded violence and discrimination based on several factors simultaneously. The recognition of that reality — variously referred to as intersectionality, multidimensionality, and multiple forms of discrimination — is important to any examination of violence against women with disabilities. 22. Indigenous women with disabilities often experience multiple forms of discrimination and face barriers to the full enjoyment of their rights, based on their indigenous status, their disability and their female identity. The incidence of violence against them is heightened by factors, such as living in a context of high levels of alcohol and substance abuse, which leads to violence against them; cultural and linguistic barriers; lack of education services for children with disabilities in native communities; and systemic poverty. 5 They may also encounter barriers resulting from the use of conflicting or complex traditional and contemporary justice and service systems.5 23. Rural women generally have less access to resources, training and skill development opportunities — due to high levels of illiteracy, the prevalence of negative stereotypes and their overall socioeconomic status. The final report of a workshop on women and disability conducted by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok in 2003 indicates that more than 80 per cent of women with disabilities in rural areas in Asia and the Pacific have no independent means of livelihood and are thus dependent on others for their economic survival. Inaccessible environments and lack of services, and lack of information and awareness, education, income and contact further exacerbate the situation, resulting in further isolation and invisibility. In the general statement adopted at its fiftieth session on 19 October 2011, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women noted that violence against women, including __________________ 2 3 4 5 6 Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Feminist disability studies, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 30, No. 2 (2005). Michelle Fine and Adrienne Asch, “Disabled women: sexism without the pedestal”, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Soc. vol. 8, No. 2 (1981). Johanna Bond, “International intersectionality: a theoretical and pragmatic exploration of women’s international human rights violations”, Emory Law Journal. vol. 52, No. 71 (2003). Doreen Demas, “Triple jeopardy: native women with disabilities”, Canadian Woman Studies, vol. 13, No. 4 (1989), pp. 53-55. 12-45120